Wednesday, October 07, 2015

NYSUT STATEMENT ON JOHN KING'S APPOINTMENT AS US SECRETARY OF EDUCATION & A QUICK LOOK BACK

New York State United Teachers is not happy with the appointment of former New York State Education Commissioner John King as Acting US Secretary of Education.  They want us to call the White House to complain.  Here is the statement:

NYSUT Statement on John King's Appointment as Acting U.S. Secretary of Education

Source: NYSUT Media Relations

"New York State United Teachers is disappointed in John King's appointment as acting U.S. Secretary of Education.  NYSUT has always considered John King an ideologue with whom we disagreed sharply on many issues during his tenure as the state's Education Department commissioner.  Just last year, our members delivered a vote of no confidence against him and called for his resignation.  NYSUT urges its members to call the White House switchboard at 202-456-1414 - as well as a special White House telephone line dedicated to public comments at 202-456-1111 - to express their displeasure in John King's appointment."

For anyone who has forgotten about John King, some basic information is in this video where Port Jefferson Station Teachers Association/Stronger Together Leader Beth Dimino blasts him at a town hall meeting.




As for UFT reaction to King's appointment, has anyone heard anything?

13 comments:

JR said...

I think we have an issue with the retro pay that nobody mentioned. Because the target will be moving, and as they are paying us, the retro owed is going up, not down, the 12.5+12.5+25+25+25 doesn't work out. Lets say someone is owed $24K as of this first payment, they get 1/8 which is $3K, leaving a balance of $21K. Over the next 2 years, lets say they are owed another $10K, thats 31K. 2017 payment of 1/8 is approx $3,875, leaving a balance of approx $27K. Now they accrue another year of retro from 2017-2018, lets say its 6k, total balance is $33k. Now we have the 3 payments in 2018-2019-2020, of 25% each. 3 payments of approx $8,250, that equals $24,750, meaning that person missed out on about $8k of pay. Because the amount is going up, those last 3 payments must be 33% each, not 25% each. They stupidly, as far as i know, simply added the percents up to get 100%, but it is incorrect in this situation.

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

From what I understand, the entire amount will be calculate from year 2009/2010 to 2015, and that will be 100%. If you continue working, that won't raise the amount in any way. When you receive your payment, supposedly this month, it will be the first time members have a clue of what the entire amount is i.e. 12.5% of the total, I'm really curious if individuals will have the wherewhithal, absent of union or doe help, to understand if they have received there actual payment

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 7:24 is not correct. The retro pay is not fully phased in until 2018. See the explanation on page 3 of this month's NY Teacher. We are only receiving retro pay for money accrued until October 1, 2015. Since our retro pay continues to increase until October 2018, I agree with JR and think we should receive payments of 33.33% of the remaining accrued retro as of October 2018 in 2018, 2019, and 2020.

I hope this is clarified by others more knowledgeable.

Anonymous said...

Question to Anon 11:16
If we are only receiving retro pay for money accrued until October 1, 2015, how does it continue to increase after that? Don't the 4% and 4% then become part of our salary and we get that in our paycheck from then on?

This retro pay is separate from the wage increases scheduled for the next three years. There isn't any interest paid to us (we agreed in the contract), so the city keeps that until 2020.

JR said...

Ive figured it out several times. either the City and the UFT didnt realize that 100% is not 100% in this case because of the moving target and retro going up over time, or they intentionally are screwing us and we are too stupid to know. Either way, we are not being made whole. This is a terrible miscalculation. The 2020 payment should be made to be, "Whatever is still owed", not 25%.

BB said...

This could result in a miss of $10K for a teacher, of course based on income over the time of 2009-2018.

Anonymous said...

Why didn't all of you spread the word to vote against this lousy contract?

Anonymous said...

Did you bring this problem with the math to the attention of the UFT? what is their response?

Unknown said...

Wow NYSUT how original, why don't you just borrow my entire blogpost instead of just the part at the end where I inserted Beth going unblocked around the end and straight into the Tisch/King backfield?

http://b-loedscene.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-return-of-king-more-like-idiocracy.html

John said...

Yes, I emailed both Mulgrew and UFT Attorney Adam Ross. No response yet.

Anonymous said...

Our union sucks

Anonymous said...

They suck but they always get reelected so whose fault is that?