Many of us know that our union leadership has failed it's members as they have negotiated contracts that contained massive "givebacks", inadequate raises, and deteriorating teacher autonomy in the classroom. Since the Bloomberg era teachers have seen many "givebacks" negotiated by our inept union leadership. While the City had highly experienced negotiators at their side, the union leadership relied on their own people, like Adam Ross to negotiate a contract. One City Hall insider snickered that negotiating with the UFT is like a man fighting a boy, with the UFT being the boy. No wonder our contracts are so pitiful. Let's take a look on the many "givebacks" and inadequate raises each contract imposed on the members.
2005 Contract:
The mother of all bad contracts. The October 2005 contract barely included raises that exceeded the rate of inflation. The raises averaged 3.15% annually.while inflation was 3%. To get this raise the UFT leadership gave the City massive givebacks. This included the elimination of seniority transfer rights and the rise of the ATR crisis. You can read it Here
Second, was the elimination of challenging disciplinary letters to the file, a major blow to teachers who are targeted by vindictive principals. You can read it Here. Third, the 2005 contract negotiated more time in the teaching day and more days, including two days before Labor Day. You can read it Here. Fourth, probably the most nefarious part of the contract that allowed the DOE, using the "probable cause" wording in the contract, to remove any educator accused by a student of sexual misconduct to be taken off payroll and health benefits, if an investigative agency substantiates it, based on the most flimsy of hearsay evidence. This usually results in the educator being terminated through the 3020-a process. Finally, the contract reimposed the onerous "Circular Six" requirements that basically took away our professional period.
2007 Contract:
While this contract was probably the best contract we received (a 7.1% increase for two years) it still included a couple of "givebacks" This included the expanding of the "probable cause" section to include some felonies. Moreover, this contract was the begining of the DOE's Fair Student Funding" policy that discriminated against veteran teachers and caused the ATR pool to explode with over 2,500 at its peak.
The 2014 Contract:
This contract was short on raises, 10% for 7.1 years or averaged 1.41% annually. True, it gives back our 2009-10 raises but most of us have to wait until 2020 to be made whole. Of course if you resign or die forget about those raises. Here again the union agreed to "givebacks" by making it easier to fire ATRs and further expanded actions under the "probable cause" statue.
Now, our union leadership is in the process of negotiating a new contract. Based on previous contracts look for raises that are less than 2% annually and more "givebacks".
26 comments:
Fuck givebacks. If we are getting a shitty 2% raise, I want 2 observations like the rest of NYS.
How sad that ATR Supervisor Justin Stark came to Edison HS. We had a good system here...he's a damn incompetent moron!
The Tier 6 newbies are disheartened to learn that they have to work 15 years to get health benefits for retirement. So many of these Tier 6 newbies do not even know what their Tier requires.
I have yet to meet a newbie, however, who says they are planning to make teaching a career. Every one of them has told me they are going to 'do something else' in a couple of years. This was Bloomberg's dream, and his phrase.
Teaching will be made a temp job of 3-6 years and then the staff members move on. No pensions, no health benefits. Those few who can navigate the vindictive 'observation' system and who want to make teaching a career will be rewarded with years of psychological abuse, sleepless nights, unfair ratings, rotating, inept administrators and poorer working conditions as the years roll by.
When they get into their late 30s and 40s the dreaded ATR or 3020 hearing curse will loom large in their thoughts. One more American institution gone.
Looking forward to the "it's the best we can do" "if we don't agree we go to the bottom of the list" speeches from Unity. They'll tack on a signing bonus just to make sure the newbies who need 1K in drinking money help to ratify the contract.
I don't need their crappy raises, and lord only knows what givebacks they have in mind. I need them to get rid of four observations, so maybe I can get rid of this anxiety, and stop praying every day that my AP is too busy to do a post-ob in which he craps all over everything I do just because he can.
Trying desperately to hold out to get the rest of what the city owes me. But I can't even imagine lasting four more years in this fekked up system.
Unbelieveable!
Chaz Fair Student Funding is not a part of the contract nor was it negotiated by the UFT.
Janus decision will be known in less than a month. Union dues will be affected . People will seriously reconsider paying union dues when health benefits are always intact and paid by the city.
Hopefully change will take place.
My CL once said to me, “[Mr. X (the principal)] loves to shit all over the teachers! And it’s my job to make sure that doesn’t happen!” So, we told the District Rep about a letter which I had received, summoning me to a disciplinary conference. The DR said, “He’s such a fucking bastard! I’m going to call the superintendent.” The DR did, and the summons letter was withdrawn.
I turn 50 this year.
I think I can make it 5 years to the retirement zone.
Once you get closer, you can relax more.
It still takes them a couple of years to get rid of the average teacher they target.
I would like to go to 57 to get the 20 year pension. After that I'm done.
The Union is not fighting for us on a lot of fronts.
However, a bad union is better than no union.
I understand the frustration though. I've heard stories from the real old-timers about how the principals used to be afraid of Union actions and grievances and all that.
We live in different times now, for sure. I personally have seen union floor reps be lapdogs to admins, because they are rated by Danielson's Disaster too, and fear for their jobs like the rest of us.
The newbies, for all their millennial 'social justice' hypocrisy, are even worse in how they suck up to admins, falsely thinking they are 'different' from the older teachers and more loved.
When I can walk away, I will be so happy, except for the fact the I slaved away in such a miserable job that I became trapped in. I will keep paying my dues because I deduct them on my taxes as a professional association fee. This job is dead as a career. We who have 10 or more years in are in the last decent tier. Ride it out.
734...
Fair Student Funding may not have been negotiated by the UFT, but they never argued against it; they are complicit.
At the time Joel Klein proposed Fair Student Funding, he did not believe the union would agree to it and was ready to drop it. However, to his surprise our union did not object but simply informed the DOE that this new funding mechanism would result in veteran teachers having less of a chance of getting a new position.
Reduce amount of observations for tenured teachers, disconnect eval from high stakes testing, restore the 1.25% taken from the TDA, raises so we can have a higher FAS for retirement, no money taken for us for givebacks, change the culture in which Tweed defunds the system, and in which it seems like Tweed vs. teachers [leftover toxic relations from Bloomberg Era, more paid training for teachers in crisis areas of instruction and student support.
Ending Fair Student Funding is the one thing that would dissuade many ATRs and veteran teachers from dropping out of the UFT. There are
many that are prepared to do so. The new teachers are all dropping out except the ones that are being told by their Chapter Leaders that their dues pay for medical coverage.
Stop trolling 11:52 (hope you are getting paid a lot for your anti-union comments)
Most teachers are not dropping out. Haven’t met one, yet.
You will, 3:37, you will.
No one has the balls to say they're are dropping out, I haven't met any one, but you can bet Mulgrew's ass they are. Why are people afraid of the union? We pay them not the other way around.
Another point that is seldom voiced is that of a buyout. Incentivizing tenured teachers to retire earlier than they might have is the appropriate/legal way to improve the bottom line.
I'm sure it would be much cheaper than staffing the DOE with thousands of lawyers that are then you used in a "Mafia" style/fashion to lie, cheat, abuse, defame, and wrongly terminate professional workers.
This should be part of the contract talks.
The money is going to the wrong place!
STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE
Totally agreed the lawyers are causing a lot of trouble and they are lying.
He is just a hatchet and Ojeda uses him.
Restoring that additional 1.25% back to the TDA would be huge for me. Over the course of a career that’s tens of thousands of lost dollars just for a day or two of going back before Labor Day . The union really screwed us on that one
9:10 AM. I hope you are aware that if you take
A 20 year pension at 57 there is a substantial
Penalty for leaving before age 62
Mulgrew is useless. Schools are getting much worse.
Our Union by not negotiating in good faith has impacted that a group of teachers called ATRs are treated in a different way under rules that were not voted, and are denied a fair chance to find permanent jobs because they are in disvantage with respect to new teachers (fair student funding). The ATR pool was never created to be a dumping ground for the most experienced teachers. Many Leadership Principals are using the observation process to push veteran teachers that are outspoken out of schools, and making them ATRs. Therefore we require a new agreement with the input, and vote of ATRs in compliance with the Roberts Laws. We also require a new agreement that prevents any targeting, harassment, or abuse from any type of supervisor with the sole purpose of terminating ATRs. Observations should not be used in a arbitrary, and capricious way to penalize or to terminate an ATR. Article 2a of Ed. Law should not be bypassed by the UFT, or NYSUT. A teacher can only be served with termination papers if an Executive Session of the PEP votes on it, anything else constitutes a violation of the due process. Our Union cannot make any secret deals with the DOE regarding ATRs unless the D.A. approves it, and it is voted by its members. All this nonsense needs to stop.
First off the Janus decision which resulted in a 4-4 draw the last time, will now be a 4-5 vote will greatly damage the union. I would estimate that a lot of new younger teachers in the system (newbies) probably about 10% will opt out. I would also estimate 10% of the older teachers will also opt out. So that would be 20% of the current teachers will leave the union. Any thoughts on this?
11:09 expect a snowball effect; 25% first year...75% in 3 years...95% in 10 years
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