Friday, June 20, 2014

$1,000 RATIFICATION MONEY COMING NEXT WEEK

As you can clearly see by reading the letter below from our esteemed Union President and Chancellor, the $1,000 contract bonus is set to arrive next week.  That is earlier than many anticipated.  What about the 2% retroactive owed to us (1% from May 1, 2013 and 1% from May 1, 2014)?  We'll see.

The best part of the joint letter for me is this statement: "We want you to know you have our respect and our thanks." Do you feel respected as this school year ends? 

After 28 years in the school system, I just got a letter of excess that included instructions on how to pound the pavement to look for a new job.  I'm not feeling respected at all but maybe others feel differently.

Dear James,

As you come to the end of this school year, we both wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for all your hard work and dedication. We both know from experience how difficult the work you do is, and we take great pride in the thousands of people in New York City public schools who work hard each and every day to try to fulfill the dreams and hopes of over one million students. We want you to know you have our respect and our thanks.

We wanted to do more than tell you we appreciate your hard work — we wanted to take action to show you. So we have taken the first step in implementing the financial component of the recent collective-bargaining agreement between the UFT and the New York City Department of Education, which provides for a one-time ratification bonus of $1,000 (pro-rated for part-time employees) to be issued to any member who was on payroll as of the date of ratification, June 3, 2014. We are pleased to inform you that pending the ratification by the Panel for Educational Policy on June 24, for most school-based UFT staff this payment is going to appear in either your direct deposit account on June 25, or in a check delivery scheduled for June 26. Other UFT staff such as nurses and therapists should receive this payment on July 3, and part-time F status staff should be receiving their pro-rated portion on July 10.

We hope you enjoy the summer and return refreshed and ready for the next school year. We have much to work on together, including efforts around enhanced professional development and dedicated time for parent engagement, and we look forward to working together on these and many other initiatives next year. Thank you for your work this year to provide a quality education for all of our students to keep them on the road to success.

Sincerely,

Michael Mulgrew and Carmen FariƱa

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't it nice how the letter is signed by the head of the UFT and the Chancellor of education?

Anonymous said...

One big happy family except for us low lifes who work in the schools.

Anonymous said...

Hey, at least you are getting something. UFT members at the UFT's own school are getting zilch. We were told we would get to vote on the contract -- nope. No raises, no signing bonus.

Anonymous said...

James,
I certainly hope you are part of Tier 1 or 2 so you can put in your papers before the June 30th deadline and get the hell out. You can do more for teachers outside the system by being able to go from school to school and talk to teachers about what a stronger leadership can do for them. And you deserve to be able to enjoy life outside of this nonsense that is our union leadership.

Anonymous said...

Well how about this? Mulgrew and Farina in bed together and BFF. How nice. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
That $1000 bribe your getting is going to disappear real quick between taxes, rising tolls, red light cameras, speed cameras and rising gas and food prices.
JOKES ON YOU UFT.

Anonymous said...

No one is ever happy on this blog. Feel sad for you

Anonymous said...

Love how the city announced in the budget that they have a surplus in the labor fund because the uft took the contract... Tell me again, why do I have to wait to get those cola "raises."

Anonymous said...

Do sub paras get this bonus also?

Anonymous said...

Hey anonymous June 20 @ 10:52..... Thanks for taking your head out of the sand long enough to offer us your pity. You remind me of an old saying...he who follows sheep looks at assholes all day.

Anonymous said...

More PD?

Anonymous said...

Woohoo, now we can pay one or two ConEd bills instead of getting a raise for the year that this bonus is for!

Quinn said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

When a student aces a test, the teacher doesn't say, "Here's an A+ because I appreciate your hard work." Instead, we say to the student, "You earned this A+ yourself." So why is the Chancellor giving us money that we earned and saying, "Here take this because I appreciate you." That's not how the relationship works. We earned the money, don't sound like your sounding a gift of beneficence upon us.

myghty said...

I've been teaching for 11 years at the same school, I'm a rep and I've had a great relationship with my principal, just got a highly effective as well, although I voted no for this contract, I'm choosing to be happy with it since the majority of the members voted for it. I feel sorry for those that choose to have sour grapes over everything. We have a good career great benefits, choose to be happy and stop been mad and sad about everything, life can't be that horrible. Think of the song "happy" by pharrell

Anonymous said...

Ok myghty-
You just go on being a happy idiot.

Anonymous said...

or be a proactive member in a new "Central Paperwork Committee" abbreviated to CENTRAL COMMITTEE....do I live in the USSR?