Mulgrew: Quit While We're Ahead...Arbitrate?!?

It was bound to happen. Nothing like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Mulgrew has made it clear. He wants no part of the final evaluation decision. In a message to Chapter Leaders Mulgrew blamed the mayor's refusal to even accept a mediator as evidence that we need an arbitrator. Cuomo suggested binding arbitration (something he can't get without UFT backed legislators' approval) as a way to stop the bleeding of funds from the DOE's budget.

Bloomberg knew that the State could not sit by and allow the loss of Title I and other funds. He figured at some point they would cave. And true to the awful UFT history of allowing 3rd parties to determine our contract Mulgrew and Cuomo took the bait.

What will happen in binding arbitration? While some may argue it's hard to predict nothing could be further from the truth. Only a small handful of school districts refused or failed to come up with evaluation agreements. The fact is that almost all of the districts agreed to some really strange, yet to be determined, metrics with the basic indicator being some form of the VAM.

While it is true that most of the districts had sunset provisions to allow for future renegotiation (and binding arbitration might impose that) the fact is that the arbitrators will look to the agreements already agreed upon and shove this nonsense down our throats. Some of the smaller details like how the appeals system will work are harder to predict but whatever happens you can  be sure that Mulgrew and Unity will claim victory. After all we could all be in Kansas where bills to prevent collective bargaining about class size and evaluations will very soon become law.

Thank you, brother Mulgrew. You really could have been a contender.