Tuesday, June 03, 2014

UFT: 77% APPROVE CONTRACT

The UFT is reporting that 77% of those voting approved the contract.  This includes every bargaining unit and not just teachers. The turnout was remarkably high with around 90,000 voters casting ballots out of a total of  around 110,000 eligible voters.

77% is a surprisingly high approval rate as is the turnout.

For the teachers, the unofficial, preliminary totals show 75% in favor and 25% opposed. 

The UFT came remarkably close to the 84% TWU approval rate and they missed the 89% yes vote in the last UFT contract by not that wide a margin when one considers the details of this contract.

As soon as numbers are official, we will report more.

40 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very sad.

Anonymous said...

I voted no. If 77% of the dumb and greedy teachers approved it let them become victims of a mayor in the future who is not "labor friendly" like our buddy DeBlasio. the ATRs will be fired, 200 schools will become PROSE (another form of a charter school) and who knows how much the remaining teachers will be kicking in for the healthcare costs every year. I wish I was in a real union that values and fights for the rights of its members

Anonymous said...

You're not.

Anonymous said...

I feel dejected, my union brothers and sisters have been sold out, other unions won't take this BS, raises not worth the cost of living, zeroes, a union that will be divided among itself- a 77 percent vote yes-a union membership that has thrown in the towel.

Anonymous said...

Now it will be interesting to see what other unions do. But the rock won't fall until the real health care changes are announce.

Bronx ATR said...

Two years and I'm out, if I can survive . The union members will get what they deserve, they voted for it. It's much better to be a cop, fireman or sanitation worker. Better money,better working conditions and members who will stand up for their rights. Bloomberg has won again.

Anonymous said...

Bronx ATR:
You look down a barrel of a gun? You run into falling skyscrapers? You lift stinking and heavy garbage when it is 5 degrees.

Our jobs are what we make of them. Make the job yours.

Now, with the new ATR contract language you should be able to find a rewarding position in your district and borough.

Anonymous said...

Surely the last commenter is joking.

Michael Fiorillo said...

Joking?

No, just reiterating the Unity policy of, "Shut up, get to work and be happy you have a job."

Bronx ATR said...

To 909,
I'm a CTE teacher in the Bronx. There hasn't been one business position posted in 2 years. Before becoming a teacher I did security work and sanitation. The only times I've come into contact with guns was as a teacher. Two 14 year olds sprayed the yard with a bullets while I had 7th graders at recess (a junior high school) grazing several. Another time a student told me he was going to shoot me one morning, I believed him (the principal didn't ). I called the cops that evening, they waited for him in the morning. He had live bullets, but no gun. No arrest, no suspension. (He's currently in and out of jail- but used to visit me regularly. He told me once he considers me his father.) This is a sad, stinking profession that has nothing to do with education.

Anonymous said...

It is the "Final Nail in the 'Teaching as a Profession' Coffin" of an essentially already Part-Time job. I realize that you cannot convince "New York’s Dumbest" to determine right from wrong no less take even the simplest action if they did. I of course still Voted NO and attempted to EDUCATE teachers, so at least my conscience is clear as I struggle to get in two more years to retire and escape both a corrupt system, a dispassionate public and a multitude of spineless, ignorant educators morally unfit to teach and ultimately right where they belong, victims of their own cowardice.

Anonymous said...

As a union made up mainly of woman, this is the best you can get. 75 cents for every dollar the male worker gets.
Do you really think cops, firemen and sanit workers would accept this? First of all, their union heads would not even propose such an insult.
Until woman demand pay parity with men, this is what you will get.
Nice going NYC DIMMEST.

Unknown said...

Does anyone know when retirees will get their lump sum retro money?

Anonymous said...

Tomorrow! No make that yesterday.

Anonymous said...

the day after tomorrow, or the day before yesterday. either way, depends on when you read this.

Anonymous said...

New York's Meekest

Anonymous said...

I called a UFT office they say that the 1000 plus the retro for 2013 and 2014 due upon ratification will not be out for 3-4 months....

Anonymous said...

Thats called a "bait and switch"

Anonymous said...

Ok, this one I don't believe this one on mulgrews pie chart it clearly states that the 1000 and the retro for 2013 and 2014 will be received during yes during the 2013-14 school year....period end of story

Anonymous said...

Dream on.

Anonymous said...

I just read the original email with that chart. 1000 plus 2013, 2014 , one and one percent. "As soon" as the contract is ratified. No wiggle room to get out of not sending thoose checks out ASAP.

Anonymous said...

The check is in the mail.

Anonymous said...

Who cares anymore. Everyone who can get out will ASAP. This isn't teaching and I didn't sign up to be a babysitter. The DOE and UFT are one and the same.

I noticed that... said...

It's a very bad contract.

By December or March of next year, the teachers will eventually feel the impact of the contract of 2%ers. Watch as there will be delays with the retro money and watch how mulgarten will do a kabuki financial dance with de Blasio on the unfortunate incident that the state did not provide a budget that can paid for all the retros and raises. Watch how months will past and the union will pretend to fight and will get all the money just before the union election of 2016. I DON'T TRUST THE UNION LEADERSHIP ANYMORE!

And, I hope it does get bad, not that I want for anyone to be victimized by the union's own political agenda. But, it will give the members a chance to react to the negative impact and hopefully to realize that a change in leadership is the next step.

Even a non-union layman can see it's a bad contract.

Anonymous said...

Considering Payroll Closes Soon. You Won't See Anything Until September

Anonymous said...

"As Soon As" these checks are generated automatically , and they have to be to us before the end of the school year. If they cant get this little payout right imagine the larger ones. I mean they wave this tiny miniscule carrot in front of us and then dont even deliver on it.

Anonymous said...

Not a fan of the contract but there was no promise to pay the 1000 this school year. The exact wording of the contract says the 1000 "shall be payable as soon as practicable upon ratification of the Agreement"

When depends on whose defining "as soon as possible"

Anonymous said...

It said immediately upon ratification.

James Eterno said...

Here is the language from the MOA:

"A lump sum cash payment in the amount of $1,000, pro-rated for other than full time employees, shall be payable as soon as practicable upon ratification of the Agreement to those employ- ees who are on the payroll as of the day of ratification."

What does as soon as practicable mean?

Anonymous said...

Uft says payroll is closed. Unfortunately we will not get anything until september, which I have been saying all along. Payroll closes in June, impossible for them to do anything. So September it is

Anonymous said...

Teachers shut out of retroactive pay raises under the new union contract are looking to claw their way into the windfall with a class-action lawsuit that could cost taxpayers as much as $35 million, The Post has learned.

About 4,000 teachers who worked between 2009 through 2011 — the years covered by the back-pay deal — and left before their eligible retirement are excluded under the nine-year contract approved by the United Federation of Teachers and Mayor de Blasio.

Some 4,200 teachers who called it quits in 2012 and 2013 also might claim the retro pay, which would be 8.16 percent of their final salaries.

Two former teachers who are married, Antonio and Theresa Pepe, are among the educators exploring lawsuits against the city and the union.

“That’s the raise we should have gotten all along. Now we’re not getting it for whatever reason,” said Theresa Pepe.

“We’re not asking for money that we didn’t work for. The point is we deserve that money.”

The Staten Island couple had a combined gross annual salary of about $180,000.

Antonio worked two of the retro-covered years and Theresa, one.

If eligible, they’d be owned about $11,000.

A veteran city labor lawyer who has represented unions and aggrieved city workers said the jilted teachers may have a strong case.

“It’s a class-action suit in the making,” said attorney Arthur Schwartz, who has fielded complaints from some of the ex-teachers.

“I am a fan of [union president] Mike Mulgrew and the UFT. But unless the union counsel knows of some case law that I haven’t found, there are 4,000 former teachers who have a good case, and their claim is for somewhere in the vicinity of $30-35 million,” Schwartz said.

“If I were the UFT I would go back to the city and get this addressed quickly,”

Schwarz cited an upstate case that he said raises doubts about excluding retro pay for ex-teachers.

In May 2001, the Hoosicks Falls school district and local teachers union approved a new contract that included retro pay for the years 1999 and 2000.

The agreement said the back pay only covered current employees, and excluded those who worked those years but then left the payroll.

But 11 former teachers sued the union and the school district for back pay and won.

The UFT and mayor’s office declined to comment.

Anonymous said...

After speaking with my UFT Rep yesterday, he said that the check for the immediate ratification bonus will be cut separately from our "payroll" which will be sent out after the 15th of June. Another UFT rep from a neighboring school said we won't see anything until late September. Now, if we're ALL getting our information from the SAME union and district office, then WHY is there such a miscommunication? There is hardly any reliable information out there. Does anyone have an answer to this and can validate that their information is reliable instead of just guessing? I don't need any comments on whether you like the contract or not, I'm just trying to get some reliable information for my fellow UFT members and I.

Anonymous said...

It was in your bank account already. You must have missed it.

Anonymous said...

I am a teacher who called the UFT Bronx office, they told me Sept-Oct of the 2014-2015 school year for the 1000 plus retro for the 1% and 1% for 2013 and 2014
. While this seems incredulous and I don't want to accept it . It is what I was told...

Anonymous said...

I guess we had to get to the back of the line.

Anonymous said...

Why is it incredulous? They have to adjust pay for 110,000 people plus the people who are retiring or retired while payroll is closed out already for this school and fiscal year. It makes sense we get the back pay in September. If we get it a litlle earlier in August, you can throw a celebration. No, the pro contract people commenting here will probably be complaining about how small the increase is.

Anonymous said...

I think they should have been prepared to mail the checks out at ratification. All teachers in my building believed thats what was going to happen. When thinking about this contract, from the opening news confrence , nothing was what it seemed. Full retro, yeah.....but. The 4% and 4% FROM 2008 and 2009 ,yeah....but. The signing bonus at ratification is small marbles but ......

Anonymous said...

You guys in that school and 3/4 of us are the reason we get treated like we do. You fall for it every time.

Anonymous said...

If professionals in the NYC metro area who are required to have a BA and an MS are scrambling to get their hands on what will amount to $600 after taxes that means we are underpaid and desperate. So desperate that we continue to accept scraps. It's all a vicious cycle that I will jump out of in 2018 on the day I turn 55 ...right before we get screwed by the next bad contract.

Anonymous said...

You all voted for it. Oh just trust Mulgrew and Carmen