Monday, May 01, 2017

MULGREW'S LETTER PUSHING CONTRACT REVIEWED THREE YEARS LATER

Earlier yesterday, I was going over some of my old Jamaica High School materials to help prepare for a film shoot in Brooklyn for a pro-public education film where Kymberley Walcott, Jamaica HS Class of 2013, was one of the featured speakers. While combing through my archives for Jamaica High School materials, I came across the May 15, 2014 issue of the New York Teacher touting what was then a new UFT contract agreement. Three years later, UFT President Michael Mulgrew's letter to the membership sounds even more detached from reality than it did when I originally read it. Here is a part of it:

It is a contract for educators but, of equal importance, it is also a contract for education that will not only benefit us but also the students, schools and communities we serve.

After years of fighting off bad ideas from so-called "education reformers," we have in this contract turned the tables on them by enabling teacher-led innovations in our schools.

Working in partnership with Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Farina, we now have the opportunity to rebuild our city's school system with educators--not bureacrats or consultants--in the driver's seat. Our agreement is the product of a shared belief that it is our school communities that must be the agents of change and that, when we educators are empowered to use our professional expertise, we can solve our common challenges and develop new ways to improve outcomes for our students.

Our proposed agreement, which must be ratified by the membership, includes the pay increases we deserve after working for five years without a contract.

Our previous mayor tried to make it impossible for the next administration to give educators the raises they deserve. Michael Bloomberg failed to set aside money in the city budget to pay for the two 4 percents for 2009 and 2010 that other city workers received. He also purposely drained the city's entire labor reserve fund. Over the five long years that Bloomberg refused to negotiate with us, the cost of paying out those raises ballooned. That's the budget that Mayor Bill de Blasio inherited. The cupboard was bare.

Despite that virtually empty labor reserve, we figured out a way forward with our new mayor, who was a willing and respectful negotiating partner. By agreeing to stretch out the retroactive payments and raises, we made our members whole and at the same time won significant raises in the contract's later years. Without the extended payout, we could not have achieved either. When this agreement is paid out, UFT members will have more money in their pockets than if we had done the payout in any other way.

It sounds almost comical to see Mulgrew saying the city's cuboard was bare when the city even then was running a surplus. MORE's Harris Lirtzman broke down the numbers in early 2014 to show how the city could afford a decent contract. Since 2014 black ink has become a regular feature on city balance sheets. I don't recall a time when the city's economy has been healthier. Stretching out the payments of the 2009-2010 money to 2020 cost the city peanuts as an expert from the Independent Budget Office told one of our readers.

Mulgrew referring to de Blasio as a "willing and respecful negotiating partner" sounds ridiculous now as does telling us educators are going to be in the driver's seat. Saying anything about the contract empowering educators sounds completely insane based on the number of abusive administrators, who are out of control in the de Blasio-Farina era, unless Mulgrew was referring exclusively to empowering principals. The mayor and chancellor's idea of "teacher led innovation" seems to be for us to shut up and do as we're told.

It is interesting to note that on healthcare Mulgrew's letter doesn't mention the higher costs we would be forced to accept. All he says on the subject is, "Health benefits and pensions are preserved."

When reviewing his letter, it is easy to reach a conclusion that Mulgrew was more than a little guillable or maybe he was just awe struck by having a mayor who returned his phone calls and talked nicely to him.

In the end, this contract was inadequate when it came out, as this blog pointed out the day it was released, and it is not improving with age. Then again, 75% of teachers and 77% of UFT members overall voted for it so ultimately we bear some of the responsibility, although after rereading Mulgrew's defense of his contract, I can say we were not told anything close to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth by our leader.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

What about student on teacher abuse...Cursed, threatened, hit, but its ok, its a good kid...
A Bronx man was recovering Sunday after he was suddenly attacked, beaten and robbed.

As CBS2’s Dave Carlin reported, the victim was visiting his daughter and grandchildren when he was attacked in the lobby of a building on Morris Avenue in Fordham Heights on April 4. Investigators released surveillance video of the alleged robbery on Sunday.
“My dad is a family man,” said the man’s daughter, who did not want to be identified. “He has six kids, three grandkids, and usually lives his life through us.”

In surveillance video, the pair can be seen on the sidewalk out front.

They got inside the first door, and then the victim allowed them to tailgate in to the lobby right behind him.

Soon afterward, the men threw the victim to the floor, punching and kicking him, and then one suspect grabbed his bag and they ran out of the building.

The man and his daughter asked that his face not be shown in full. With the suspects on the loose, the family feared retaliation.

“No idea who they were,” the victim’s daughter said. “He’s never seen them before.”

The woman said the robbers got her father’s gym bag, as well as $40 in his wallet.

CBS2 showed the brutal video to some of the daughter’s Fordham Heights neighbors.

“It does make me sick,” one woman said.

“You know, you got people doing petty stuff like that for no reason,” added Johnny Brito of Fordham Heights.

On the same morning, the victim had been at his gym on Grand Concourse, and investigators will try to figure out if the men followed him to the building from the facility.

The daughter said her father was surprised the two men did not take his cellphone, which he used right away.

The father called the daughter and told her to come downstairs to the building superintendent’s basement apartment. She said when she got down to the basement, she was surprised to see how bloody and bruised he was.

“It’s very unfortunate, especially living around here,” she said. “You feel like in your neighborhood, you’re never safe.”

The victim was treated and released from St. Barnabas Hospital with injuries to his face.

The first suspect is described as an approximately 25-year-old Hispanic male, roughly 5’10” and 190 pounds with a dark complexion and black hair and a beard. He was last seen wearing a black Mercedes Benz baseball cap, a black hooded sweatshirt, and black sweatpants.

The second suspect is described as an approximately 25-year-old Hispanic male, roughly 5’10” and 180 pounds with a light complexion and close cut hair. He was last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black sweatpants.

Anonymous said...

Police on Sunday were searching for a suspect who allegedly attacked a food deliveryman in a Bronx elevator a week ago Saturday.

A second suspect in the case has been arrested and charged.

Police said on Saturday, April 22, someone posed as a customer and ordered food to 775 Fox St. in the Woodstock section of the Bronx.

The deliveryman came to the building around 9:05 p.m. that night, and after he got in an elevator, two suspects entered when it stopped on the fifth floor, police said.

One of the suspects took out a knife and the second pushed the victim against the wall and went through his pockets, police said.

The suspects took about $80 and the food, and got back off the elevator at the fifth floor, police said.

One suspect was arrested and charged just 35 minutes after the robbery, police said. He was identified as Jaimel Foggie, 53, of the Bronx and was charged with robbery and assault.

The suspect who remained at large Sunday was described as a Hispanic male, 25 to 35 years old, standing 5 feet 10 to 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighing 180 to 190 pounds. He was last seen wearing a red, black and white hooded jacket, gray pants, and gray sneakers.

Anonymous said...

Same guilty parties...
Police were searching Sunday for three people who robbed a pair of men in their Queens home using a meat cleaver as a weapon.

Around 1:20 p.m. Sunday, April 23, the men – ages 59 and 62 – were confronted in their home in Jamaica, Queens, by three men they did not know, police said.

While trying to flee, the 59-year-old man suffered slash wounds to his face and hands from the meat cleaver, police said. The 62-year-old man escaped and the assailants also fled, police said.

The assailants had been inside the home when the victims returned, police said. Police do not believe the victims were targeted.

One of the suspects was described as a black male 30 to 40 years old, weighing 150 to 160 pounds. He was last seen wearing a T-shirt and jeans and was holding the cleaver, police said.

The second suspect was described as a white or Hispanic male about 5 feet 10 inches tall with salt and pepper hair, wearing a white or gray T-shirt and holding a black handgun.

The third suspect was a black male 30 to 40 years old, standing 5 feet 8 to 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing 150 to 160 pounds. He was wearing black sunglasses and a black leather baseball hat, and he spoke with a West Indian accent.

Police released surveillance photos and video of the third suspect.

Anonymous said...

Bottom line, its over as far as the contract. How they got to hold the retro for 11 years with no interest AND got to hold the raises spread over 4 years AND got us to accept barely 1% per years over 7 plus years. Pretty pathetic. Early contract with better terms? Contract ends in 17 months. Put hey, teachers are dumb and getting dumber. I guess we could hope for the twu deal, with outdid us, 5% over 28 months plus $500. And this is while the job is more hated every day...Like torture.

Anonymous said...

It's time to get out.

Anonymous said...

Thats why so many quit in the first 3-5 years.

Anonymous said...

ATR here, i begged people to vote no, was laughed out of the building and ridiculed by chapter leaders...Back of the line, mayor drained labor reserves, we get every penny...

Anonymous said...

Who wants to get abused every day at "work"?

Anonymous said...

Offer a legit buyout, im gone...

Anonymous said...

All of us.

Anonymous said...

Just got the bullshit UFT propaganda paper - not a word about ATRs.

Anonymous said...

But everything is wonderful.

Anonymous said...

The UFT newspaper is a rag.

Anonymous said...

All ATRs should sue the city and the UFT for discriminatin.

Anonymous said...

They will once they see what Mulgrew agreed to and what the DOE has in store for them.

Anonymous said...

They dont even bother to inform us of anything.

waitingforsupport said...

Wait...what do you mean by that @ 7:32 pm?

waitingforsupport said...

Uhhh okay???

Anonymous said...

2 guns found in curtis high school today, in students bags. Will uft safety and security be there tomorrow to protect staff from being killed?

Anonymous said...

And they were loaded. We are teachers? Something doesnt add up. Uft help? Nah.

Anonymous said...

I can tell you why, the uft was marching with a bunch of criminals yesterday. Money well spent.

Anonymous said...

No word why they were armed? Didnt you hear, all good kids bring loaded guns into public schools. Maybe we should put them in a restorative circle.
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Two teenagers were arrested for allegedly bringing loaded guns to a Staten Island school.

Police said an 18-year-old and 16-year-old had loaded guns in their backpacks at Curtis High School on Hamilton Avenue, on Monday afternoon.
The school does not have metal detectors.

Someone tipped off police about the guns, there was no word on why the teens were armed.

Anonymous said...

I emailed them about the ATR info, no response...

Anonymous said...

I emailed uft reps also regarding atr stuff. No response

Anonymous said...

I wonder why the UFT is withholding information on the new ATR agreement? You know why - we've been totally screwed by Mulgrew.

Anonymous said...

The uft has probably threatened anyone that gives away how ATRs are screwed will become one

James Eterno said...

I know nothing about any new ATR agreement. Just what I wrote about the city budget listing the ATRs as a savings.

Anonymous said...

The new ATR agreement was signed by Mulgrew, according to him, the first week of April.

Anonymous said...

And the agreement is? Why were we not informed?

Anonymous said...

Call AMY or SILL or MULGREW - I'm joking of course. It's a dissolution of the ATR pool and force placement Sept. 1, 2017.

Anonymous said...

I did, got no response, grasping at straws here.