By adding up Arthur Goldstein's Executive Board Report from last night along with the latest update from the Chief-Leader on the Policeman's Benevolent Association negotiations with the city, we can put one plus one together to conclude that the framework raise for all city workers will be settled in the not too distant future. It won't matter if the UFT has a 300 person negotiating committee or no committee at all. We can ask for the world or ask for next to nothing. The pattern will rule.
Before delving into details on the current state of city union contracts, we have to explain pattern bargaining where the city settles on a length and annual percentage rate increase (or lack thereof) with one of its many municipal unions and it sets a pattern. Subsequently, all other unions are basically locked into that pattern and receive the same raise (or lack thereof). Pattern bargaining has been upheld again and again by arbitration panels. It's the main reason why our salaries lag behind most of the suburbs. We are compared to other city workers and not teachers in Yonkers when the city negotiates our contracts. Police officers are also set side by side with other city workers and it is why they are paid less than suburban officers.
Where do negotiations for the next round of contracts stand today?
The PBA is trying desperately to have their contract settled by an arbitration panel before another union sets a pattern. In my humble opinion, the city will never let this happen. The Chief is reporting this week that a mediator is being assigned to PBA negotiations. Since the police officers have a very good case that they are paid less than suburban officers, the PBA wants to go first and set the city pattern. They need to get to arbitration before another city union settles. However, the city knows this and they are already talking to DC 37 as we learned from UFT President Michael Mulgrew in his report to the Executive Board from Monday evening.
According to Arthur's minutes, here is a summary of the negotiations:
DC37 is negotiating. Not looking for much.
We can bank on the city settling with DC37 or another weak union like the UFT before the PBA gets to arbitration. Thus there will be a pattern established that every city union worker will be stuck with.
Please do not ask what DC 37 "not looking for much" means. I have no clue. We can speculate that it means around 2% a year or less but we really don't know.
All we know is that there is a good chance that there will be a pattern raise set in the next few months that will be used to determine the next UFT contract. On the bright side, I don't think we will have to wait eleven years to get our money like we are currently waiting until 2020 in the current contract to be paid back in full for work we did in 2009.
18 comments:
The City, which has been counting the flood of property and income taxes pouring into its coffers for the last five years like King Midas, will, again, convince our union leaders that it is already or about to be bankrupt.
They will point to the federal "tax reform" bill hurtling through Congress as a dagger aimed right at the heart of blue states and cities (not entirely wrong, of course) and tell whichever union becomes the sap "pattern-setter" that this year, this time, now--well, things are just too risky to start spending any real money on municipal workers (but please forget about that geyser of cash shooting thirty feet into the air over your right shoulder).
the real union deals are almost always set when the negotiators accept an "economic framework" at the beginning of the bargaining which both sides use to establish demands. Once that framework is set, fugeddaboudit. That's where Mulgrew-UFT got swindled last time and, guaranteed, whoever gets tapped on the shoulder this round to have first seat at the table with the City will get similarly swindled.
For the love of me, I don't understand why NYC municipal union leaders can't have an old school "sit down" to work this shit out. All NYC unions should wait till the PBA gets done with arbitration. If arbitration is favorable to the PBA, they can hash out a possible good contract with their union. One PBA gets a good contract the pattern is set and the rest of the NYC unions can go next and each would get the good pattern bargain. On the flip side, if the PBA gets a shitty deal via arbitration, then it is every union for his or her self. Thoughts???
Either way mikey will screw it up
Yep, and that is why so many people are gonna leave the UFT once Janus goes through. I am planning on taking a hiatus from the UFT if we get stuck with givebacks on maternity leave or if we have to keep the current shitty Danielson observation nonsense in place. If the UFT can get it's act together in the future, I will gladly come back. Mulgrew finally has to prove his mettle and provide a service that is worth my $1,400 in annual dues. In fact, dues the money is not really the issue with me. By leaving, I am making a point that I am not happy with what the UFT is providing. For far too long the UFT hid in it's ivory tower at 52 Broadway and hashed out crap after crap to us, fully knowing that we had to take what they threw at us. In a post Janus world things will be different and the UFT will need to finally become a real, hard fighting union if it wants to stay viable.
TWU should set the pattern. Only they have the balls to strike and shut down the city.City hall is not afraid of the dummy teachers and the cops cannot strike, so they have no leverage. Garbage men could cause the mayor to crap his pants also.
Awesome point. It just makes sense for the municipal unions to be patient on this. The strongest union should go forth first to set a good pattern bargain and the rest of the unions would all benefit. Why RUSH!
The city throws in some kind sweetener to get someone to set the pattern. TWU bargains with MTA, not the city. They have contract already at about 2% a year.
If the unions ever got together and collectively said no, we would have some bargaining power. It won't happen if the past is a guide. Someone will settle to set the pattern.
I have never understood the point behind pattern bargaining so I looked it up online and found an interesting NY Times article from Nov. 1999 headlined "City Unions Shift Strategy on Bargaining."
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/12/nyregion/city-unions-shift-strategy-on-bargaining.html
The City and municipal unions have been using the pattern process since 1974. It allowed the City to pick off a weaker union which it could work over to set the pattern and impose it on everyone else. Alternatively, it gave the unions a chance to present a united front to the City if they could actually agree on how to proceed.
In 1999, the unions decided they would no longer use the pattern. They would use a "coordinated bargaining" strategy which would allow each union to organize negotiations around issues important to each union. It didn't stick because the Giuliani administration resisted it all ferociously.
But there is no historical necessity for anything connected with the current state of collective bargaining beyond inertia, lack of creativity, division among the municipal unions, competition among the union presidents, lack of will and the weaknesses of the opposition caucuses in every union which might support other ways of doing things.
Pattern bargaining exists because it has existed. Another example of how our union/s have become business bureaucracies that perpetuate automatically the ossified strategies and brain-dead approaches that worked, or didn't, more than 40 years ago.
Thus, the fact is that if the unions could stick together, we would all benefit. This seems like a no brainer. NYC is a union town. One person is a cop, the neighbor down the street is a sanitation worker, your cousin is in corrections, etc. We have a lot more in common than we think. However, union leadership is messed up. That is the problem. It should not be a power play. It should be a united fight.
This is great deducting. Sad to learn, but great to know. Any explntion as to why you think we won't have to wait very long?
Thanks for doing the research Harris. It is a future post possibly. John G, I don't think we will be waiting long because the city does not want the PBA to go first. This has happened before. The city just picks off DC 37 or the UFT and they will throw in something we all want (two observations a year, paid family leave or something else Mulgrew might think is important) and they will have a pattern. DC 37 is more likely this time around. I don't know what sweetener they might want to set the pattern. The last thing the city wants is for the PBA to set a pattern in arbitration. Then, those pesky suburban cop salaries would come into play in setting the pattern.
The PBA stands to win BIG money if arbitration rules that they should get paid the same as the suburbs that surround them. However, they have been going to arbitration over this very topic for 30 years and why has not arbitration ruled in their favor in this? I would love to know. As for me, as a veteran NYC teacher, a bigger raise is not as important to me as compared to better working conditions. (Observations, etc) This is going to be an interesting year for sure with the contract and Janus. The face of teaching in NYC may be changed forever.
PBA loses at arbitration because of pattern bargaining. I agree with commenters saying they should go first.
Again, if unions UNITED then things would be much better for all of us.
And if pigs could fly, it would be a different world. DC37 or UFT will sell out like they always do.
UFT sold out already when they backed deblasio
The problem is not so much as the unions getting into a massive pissing contest with each other as much as it is about their leaders trying to get what they perceive their members to want. PBA wants more money. UFT wants paid maternity leave. Sanitation might want different shift changes. Every union is looking out for themselves. If it was all just about money, we would let the strongest union negotiate first.
And what have we gotten since the 1990s besides money? Nothing.
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