Risk v Rewards: The Perils of Contract Negotiations
As the President of the CCNY Education Alumni Association I attended the School of Education graduation – a glorious event. Hundreds of graduates in their red caps and gowns; individualized by spectacular choices of shoes, 90% women of color. A week earlier I was a speaker at the awards ceremony, I took the opportunity to remind the graduates to join the union and become active in the union, the importance of ownership of practice; the union is the collective voice of all teachers and in the current climate, the attacks on teachers and their unions are accelerating. I reminded the students of what happened to the most famous of teachers Socrates, who needed a union.
The attacks on teachers and teacher unions is unrelenting, Texas Governor Abbot removed the school board in Houston and appointed a new superintendent who is forcing all principals and teachers to reapply for their jobs, all lesson plans will be given to the teachers and teaching will be remotely observed. “New Superintendent Unleashes Chaos, Fear, Uncertainty.”
We read almost daily how Governor De Santis is scorching teachers in Florida.
In New York City Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education (PLACE NYC) has endorsed Republicans like Lee Zeldin for governor and George Santos for Congress. Candidates tapped by the group won close to 40 percent of seats last week on parent councils that represent district issues to superintendents: academics, spending, diversity, etc.
In a climate in which teachers are fighting for the survival of public education, in a climate in which the enemies are well-funded and with powerful allies a caucus within the teacher union is encouraging teachers to vote down the proposed contract, renegotiate the contract and “begin strike preparations.”
Would the public support a teacher strike? How would the media, the NY Post, Daily News, etc., respond? the Civil Rights organizations? It might be lonely.
In New York State there are 700 school districts, thousands of public employee unions and hundreds of thousands of members. With the passage of the Triborough Doctrine, collective bargaining agreements remain in full force and effect until the successor contract is completed and the “Ability to Pay” and “Pattern Bargaining” principles all contracts are settled, the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) provides a pathway: mediation, impasse, fact-finding and non-binding arbitration. Negotiations can be contentious, a few contracts go well beyond their expiration date, and all are resolved without strikes. Public employee strikes in New York State are illegal with stiff penalties, loss of an additional days pay for each day on strike, fines and loss of dues check off for the union and whatever else the court requires if a court order is violated, once again, the process has averted strikes for decades, Read a detailed summary of PERB regulations here.
If the contract is rejected by the membership a return to the bargaining table is up to management, the mayor, who will probably simply move on to the Department of Sanitation, the FDNY and other unions who are awaiting their turn. The City would could declare an impasse and move on to the PERB process, the union could agree, or not.
From what I read the opponents to the contract, those calling for the most aggressive actions are high school teachers: 42% of New York teachers are persons of color.
As one teacher of color said to me “…to go on strike is to strike against the children we teach.”
I believe the contract will be approved by the membership; count on July 6th and what we are watching is the beginning of the April, 2024 UFT election campaign.
Contract negotiations are by their very nature contentious. In the current round a membership survey identified teacher “demands” and the union created grassroots negotiating committees representing all the titles in the union – a 500 member negotiating committee.
The mayor negotiates the fiscal issue, called “costing” the demands, and, the dollar value of the contract is determined by “pattern bargaining,” the percent increase is the same for each union. While the city controls expenses, revenue, aka taxes, is determined by the governor/state legislature. Pension is also determined by the governor/state legislature and health plans by all the unions, the Municipal Labor Coalition, the MLC.
Urging members to vote “no” because Tier 6 pension wasn’t changed or the health plan, currently part of the MLC discussions with the city are not resolved is duplicitous.
At some point in the process both sides have to agree, and seek other avenues to achieve goals. An example is class size, a “costing” issue that would reduce the salary rate, passing a law bypassed negotiations and is permanent, not subject to further negotiations and enforceable in the courts.
Make sure you vote:
Teachers, paraprofessionals, school secretaries, school counselors and lab specialists will vote in school by June 27.
Itinerant members in those job titles and UFT members in any other functional chapter will vote by mail ballot. They will receive their ballots at their homes.
The deadline for receipt of the mail ballots is July 5. The independent American Arbitration Association will start counting the ballots on July 6.
See summaries of the proposed contract provisions here https://www.uft.org/your-rights/contracts/contract-2023
Does your school have pool on the final ratification tallies?
What is duplicitous is not telling the membership that your UFT leadership agreed to save the City 600 million dollars in health care savings in perpetuity and then not telling the members that the savings will go to the Health Stabilization Fund controlled by the UFT and DC 37 and sacrificing the retirees’ Medicare and Medicare supplement to do it.
Concise and factual.