I just heard from a friend who recently retired from the NYC school system. It is October 25th and our contract was ratified in early June. The Teachers Retirement System should be able to calculate pensions at new rates but here is what my friend texted this morning:
"Got letter from TRS that October payment will be full amount due without retro. City has not given them new salary schedules yet."
Anybody want to guess when all of this gets worked out?
35 comments:
Hi James. It is Karen from Jamaica HS.
The UFT sent a letter last week saying they were going back to mediation with the city. They "intend" to have an agreement by Thanksgiving. No mention of distribution date, of course.
I also spoke with a rep at the City Comptroller office. a couple of weeks ago. He had no official information but said be prepared to wait many months until calculations are finished, maybe even a year.
Boy, I guess we were really lucky not have gone "to the back of the line".
All you morons who voted for the contract deserve what you're (not) getting.
The latest I heard is that Mulgrew claims the issue of retro pay for retirees June 30, 2014 or before-should be resolved around Thanksgiving- but he doesn't say when retro pay would be available-just says the word-"resolved". The Post's Michael Goodwin says the city is about 50 million bucks short and thinks the city will give into Mulgrew/UFT-and that would create an added cost to tax payers.Originally 180 million was set aside for retro-retirees-that was announced by Stringer in May of 2014
Mulgrew claims the issue of retro pay for retirees June 30, 2014 or before-should be resolved around Thanksgiving- but he doesn't say when retro pay would be available-just says the word-"resolved". The Post's Michael Goodwin says the city is about 50 million short and thinks the city will give into Mulgrew/UF creating a new taxpayer giveaway.
Hasn't the union given in for too long now? There are inservice members who have worked all of these years and may not see money from the previous pattern of 4% and 4% and no givebacks. This pattern was set in 2008 and now it is 2014 and we have not see a dime of that money. If we do see the money it will be without interest. I think we have been very generous in helping the city out. However it is not reported this way. We also gave up a tier 5 and 8.25% on TDA back in 2009. This was hailed at the time as significant savings for the city. It is a disgrace that six years after the pattern was set in the previous round of negotiations teachers are still seen as the bay guys.
In-service members who voted for the contract and thousands who didn't even bother to vote- have no one but to blame -but themselves for what they are not getting. The ones who were to benefit most from this contract-recent retirees-may even have to wait longer for the Mulgrew/UFT promised statement -'one lump retro pay and retirement recalculation' to be completed sometime in the fall.
Does this mean if we go for a pension consult tomorrow, TRS will use the old schedule?
Do we need to provide the new schedule to our TRS consultants?
I've spoken to TRS reps a few times during the past month and they haven't gotten anything in writing from the city dealing with 2 retro 4% raises for June 30 or July 1 retirees.(They don't even want to talk about it).If you retire tomorrow, TRS would have to use the most current salary schedule-including the raises since May 2013 and the 1000 dollar ratification payment.
In the year 2525
I believe they WILL use the old schedules for pension consults in the immediate future. When I went in May the new contract was not ratified yet,and the consultant was very reluctant to even talk about it.
Nothing will happen until Thanksgiving. I fear we are being prepared for a long wait. City Comptroller's office rep basically defended the people who do the calculations, saying there are thousands of retirees since 2009, and only about eight people who actually do the calculations. (The City probably told them not to rush.)
All in all, very frustrating. We need to keep the pressure on the UFT. A promise is a promise.
The city is not meeting the provisions of the contract. If this continues, teachers should consider taking legal action to get what has been agreed on by both parties. I would like to see cops and firemen put up with this nonsense! That would never happen, because their union operates in their best interest, unlike ours.
UFT members received a 2.14% increase this fall while DC37 got a 4.58% raise in September. Furthermore, DC37 will receive all of its raises long before the UFT money is deferred to 2020. The DC37 raises occur 18 months ahead of the UFT money. The UFT total raise is 10% whereas the DC37 raises total 10.52%+. DC37 settled after the UFT and got a better deal. The UFT is still on the bottom of the barrel.
In the year 2525, if man is still alive, if women can survive, they may fly. But the UFT will still be run by Unity Caucus.
So what else is new? My guess is money comes some time in 2015-16 school year so 90% of retirees keep voting Unity.
I retired in 2013. I waited patiently for a new contract but it didn't happen until this year. Why do I feel that the retirees will be at the "back of the line" for their long-awaited retro payment and pension recalculation? Why do I feel that the City and the UFT will do their infamous kabuki dance and drag this until the end of 2015 when the union leadership has to start its union election and campaign? Why do I feel that Mulgrew will come in to "save the day" by getting all the retro for the retirees by then so he can seem like a hero, in time for the possible change of the union constitution to include more retirees in the upcoming election of May 2016?
That is WHY I will remember this come May 2016. You can't fool me.
UFT Retiree Luncheon is on Nov 25. If Mulgrew makes an appearance in front of an overflow crowd of aggrieved retirees without having delivered retro, he will be dealing with a very angry crowd.
I am also worried about any changes in medical that was part of the new contract. I just found out that my doctor no longer accepts GHI, and I fear this will be a growing trend. Luckily, I can still use him because I can go out of network, but it's costing me!!! Meanwhile, the UFT has no qualms negotiating a health plan using 1970 rates and this is the reason more good doctors are leaving the program!!
Hey Ladies- Your voting for this contract already proves you dont care about money, dont think you deserve to make what a man makes, and you dont know how to do basic math, so chill.
We have no choice but to wait until the end of November and see how this is settled as far as even the initial payment to make good on the contract.
Then we could keep constant pressure on the TRS to resolve the new payment schedule for our pensions.
One step at a time!
Pressure must kept on the UFT and DOE when it comes to TRS salary schedules/retiree calculations. The TRS will do whatever the city provides them with. The UFT people who did those special pension/retiree clinics in June-always said to expect something to be done in the fall (Sept. 21-Dec.21). Mulgrew indicates that this issue should be resolved by Thanksgiving-but when the re-calculations are done-and when promised lump sum payments are paid out to June 30 or before retirees-no one knows.
Thanks UFT for screwing us over again. I thought this was a done deal but I see we're back in mediation. typical
9:17
If it was not for the UFT and our COPE contributions we would have lost our pensions long ago.
Do you have any idea of what we are up against. Look at other unions, look at other union workers around the country.
Everytime you walk into the club house at the retirement home thank not your lucky stars but the UFT.
Some of the Debbie Downer bloggers really need to wake up and look at the sufferers.
Did we work hard, you are darn tooting but nobody else cares but the UFT
I think the last comment is real but it is farcical.
Anonymous Monday Oct 27 11:32: The UFT doesn't care about those of us in the trenches. Thank them? I think not! F#@K them is more like it. Roseanne McCosh, PS 8.
Some of ud are starting to go off the keep end. We are not in danger of losing our pensions. However.as a longtime teacher and recent retiree, it does seem that the UFT does not fight for us as strongly as they used to. As a child in the sixties I remember the strike in 1968. As a brand new teacher in 1978 the UFT still seemed like a force to be reckoned with.
In my opinion the loss of power was
exploited by Bloomberg and his crew.
We gave away too much in exchange for hefty salary increases in 2005. In In hindsight, maybe we should have stonewalled just like the city did for the last 5 years. Instead the UFT allowed mayoral control, the mass closing of schools (all of the 5 high schools I worked in are now closed!) and the creation of ATRs.
It just seems that the UFT has allowed us to lose our rights and allowed the city to accomplies ALL of their goals. Somewhere, Bloomberg is laughing at us.
Sorry for the typos on the previous post. Should be us and deep.
Typing on a cellphone keyboard is hard!!
I couldn't vote for the contract BC I retired in 2013 but I encouraged active friends not to. Some retired on June 30 bc of the lump sum. Only about 18% of active staff voted in last UFT election. Retirees keep Unity in office. With a very angry in-service group, do you think Mulgrew will be so stupid to anger thousands of retirees as well? In any case I never voted for Unity and never will irregardless. BTW who is willing to take this to PERB if it doesn't get resolved by November as Mulgrew stated in his letter? Seems like breach of contract to me.
I plan to be at that retirement luncheon on the 25th. If I do not have a calculated pension by then, I will definitely speak up. By the way, I wrote Mulgrew an email a few weeks ago and Sandra March called me the next day. She called because one, I was a chapter leader and two, I have a blog. Of course, she spoke in political doublespeak, which means she said nothing. She kept repeating that I will get everything "eventually." Eventually is not good enough. I want a date. Then she told me how years ago, people who retired had to wait months and months for any money. I really do not care what happened years ago. We who retired still have bills to pay. This is nothing less than a breach of contract and if it is not settled by Thanksgiving, who will join me in a class action suit against the city and our union?
I will join you as I find the remarks by Sandra March about being blinded by the numbers of retirees as absurd. Every teacher both retirees and current should be incensed by this breach of faith. If they can violate the contract here what will prevent them from screwing everyone for retro
Welcome to reality. Nothing is different under de Blasiol except now the UFT makes millions of excuses for the mess ups.
I retired in June and plan to attend the retiree luncheon. I will certainly join a class action suit. The DOE could not wait to get rid of veteran teachers so we all retired. I laugh when I read that the DOE was unprepared for the numbers who left but that's because they are clueless about teachers' working conditions.
I retired in 2011. I'll sign for a class action suit too.
Yes absolutely.
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