People are asking me why do teachers and other UFT members have to pay union dues on our lump sum payment checks? The city is paying us back the second installment of what was essentially an interest free loan we made to the City/Board of Ed for work we did from 2009-2011. Other municipal unions received the money back then and it has been in their checks ever since that time but UFT members agreed to effectively loan our raises to the city when they finally settled our long overdue contract in 2014. The city cried poverty and the UFT agreed they were broke and couldn't pay us the money they owed us back in full until 2020. The second installment is on the October 15 check. It is 12.5% of the money the city owes us.
We already paid union dues on our original pay checks since 2009 so we shouldn't have to pay them again on the loan repayment (lump sum payment). Before 2015, we didn't pay union dues on retroactive checks or loan repayments because we already paid dues on that money.
If we accept the premise (I do not) that the UFT can take a little more because the money should have been paid to us at a higher rate back in those years, then according to the UFT's dues structure, every teacher who worked continuously from November of 2009 until now should have the exact same amount deducted.
This is from page 30 of the October 5, 2017 NY Teacher, a page called Notice of Dues Changes:
As approved by the UFT Executive Board and the Delegate Assembly on October 6, 1999 and November 3, 1999, UFT members' dues were reduced to .85 of one percent of the maximum salary of Step 8B plus L20 as defined in the teachers' contract plus the AFT & NYSUT pass-through.
All of us on the teacher pay scale should be paying a flat rate, not of our salary, but of Step 8B plus L20.
The Notice of Dues Changes says that all Full Time Teachers and Attendance Teachers had deductions of $58.31 per check, which has now gone up to $58.44 per semi-monthly pay period. There is no different dues schedule based on where a teacher is on the salary scale. On the lump sum, what we pay should also be identical for everyone who has been working continuously from November 2009 through now. We all were short for the same amount of pay periods.
Can anyone tell me why those of us working continuously since November 2009 have many different deductions for union dues on the lump sum payments? I don't get it or was this just another DOE mistake that has been corrected?
27 comments:
No error. We are dumb fucking idiots. Just as in 2015, same ripoff.
$1402.56 a year is the new union dues rate. What a rip-off. No wonder people want to leave. Can't someone come in and do that for a little less?
The UFT claims they are low on money. I am a retiree and I know that retirees pay less in dues, but for the 24 years that I did work I paid my full dues rate. Now that I am retired and I decided to work F-status for the DOE I pay double dues. Since I work one day a week the UFT takes dues from my DOE checks and dues from my pension. I get dental and optical but I have to pay $125 a month toget prescription coverage. The UFT used to reimburse part ofthe double dues, but since they arelow on moneythey don't know if they are doing it this year. The UFT keeps taking more money for dues and members are getting less in return.
Is there any legal way to challenge the dues? (Interpretation)
Yes, we can go to small claims court. The amount is kind of trivial but I find it troubling on principle.
UFT head honchoes are a bunch of scumbags.
The UFT is reimbursing members who are retired and are having dues deducted from DOE checks.
We need a class action suit
Sorry to go a little off topic. The UFT is going back and retroactively giving themselves a raise from our raise. OK, take the raise - but say something in defense of ATRs and teaching. An article on the front page of the NY Times is attacking us. It's an outrageously biased article. There's been numerous articles of late. Why should we warrant such interest? This is an attack on teaching as a career. The deformer groups want to make billions using cheap temporary labor. The UFT needs to answer these attacks.
Also NYS Constitutional Convention could lower our pensions. I've seen no TV ads concerning this from the UFT, AFT or any of the other unions. The voting for the CC is on the back of the ballot and many people will not realize it's there. These are extremely important items for the UFT to fight. A friend was out for dinner recently and the table next to his there was a charter school principal pontificating loudly. He said if Janus goes against the UFT he was sure the UFT would make a back room deal to lower pensions in order to save itself. My friend got up and told him there's no way Mulgrew would ever do that (he loathes Mulgrew- but defended him) and anyone with half a brain will not opt out of the UFT. The charter principal said no one with half a brain would work for the DOE. It's high time the UFT started to vocalize our outrage against these attacks or I'm afraid people will opt out en masse. That would be a disaster for all of us.
I called the UFT and I was told that since they are low on money they haven't decided if they are reimbursing double dues this year. I was told this more than once
Some people were not employed for all the years from 2009 to 2010. Their UFT dues would differ from everyone else who were fully employed.
We said that in the piece.
Another distinguished UFT member...Didn’t he learn anything in school?
Cops arrested an off-duty city special ed teacher after he was caught jumping a subway turnstile on the Upper East Side, police said Saturday.
Trevor Gerard, 29, was walking into the 86th St. station on Lexington Ave. when cops saw him jump the turnstile about 8 p.m. Friday, officials said.
He was charged with theft of service and criminal trespass.
But McCree's mother said the bullying story "surprised" her. "I'd like to know where that came from. My son had no problems at school." HAHA, yeah, he was really a good kid...Notice the kid, his mother, and his grandmother all had different last names?
I was force placed, begged the uft for assistance, there were several posted vacancies i wanted, Sill told me pretty much to drop dead. They need my $1400 for that? I have a stellar record. Couldnt even get an interview. Now stuck in a bad school, bad neighborhood, 20 miles from home. Now blocked from even seeing vacancies because of provisional placement.
Let's file a complaint with PERB over this double dipping. Even if we lose it will show them that we will not take the abuse any longer.
Ok, how do we start?
We dont. Dont bother. Get what you can get and leave. Its gonna be totally torn down soon.
The UFT seems to need every penny they could get because they know once they lose Janus a lot of UFT members will opt out of paying dues. The only way I think the UFT can get members to continue paying dues is to really fight for a good contract when this lousy piece of garbage contract ends in 2018. The last time I spoke to the UFT about the reimbursement of double dues the person I spoke to said the UFT is low on money. How can they be lowon money with all the dues that they took from everyone's retro check.
Low on money in 2015 too? Wake up. Thry are scamming us and destroying us at the same time.
Respectfully,
I say raise them by number of years in. (I'm 15 years in.) If the UFT got more money from old timers, they'd give us more respect. The UFT treats the veteran teachers as aging and ugly.
The UFT gushes about getting new teachers, but forgets about the ones that have sweated it out.
As it is, the DOE is working us to death. A lot of teachers are quitting before they reach full retirement. The DOE is only too happy to see them get less pension.
@7:21PM - You're right! Those that treat ATRs not in a nice manner will get their day because they too will age in the DOE, IF they last.
We get more retro next check? Dumbass.
They would rather walk with Al Sharpton and say how wonderful illegals are...Remember, vote dem, Dem Mayor, Dem President the last 8 years, look where it got us, worst contract in union history, danielson and an all out war against us...
It is Trump's supreme court pick who is going to destroy public sector unions. Both sides hate us fool.
The most corrupt people and liars work for the UFT.
And DOE. But you are right, the UFT people are supposed to be on our side and they are not.
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