THE UFT COULD LEARN (BUT PROBABLY WON'T) FROM UAW, TWU LOCAL 100 AND CHICAGO TEACHERS

One of my biggest complaints with UFT leadership is they don't demand much from the city or the Department of Education. When I was on the UFT Executive Board serving on the Contract Negotiating Committee, I told Randi Weingarten that if Joel Klein was demanding an 8 page contract that would take away virtually all of our rights, we had to respond by demanding Great Neck conditions to counter that. Randi said that we have to appear to be reasonable and can't demand more. She told us we would look extreme. The result was the center of gravity for negotiations for the 2005 contract moved toward the city and we ended up accepting the 2005 contract with its horrible givebacks and the extension the following year.

I served again on the Contract Negotiating Committee under Michael Mulgrew starting in 2009, hoping for a change in direction from a different leader. This time it wasn't me rather it was my friend Julie Woodward who rose during negotiations to say that our contract demands were milquetoast. (I remember she used that exact word.) If you want to know why we never get anywhere, a primary cause of our stagnation at best as a union is we demand very little in negotiations.

Ask for very little and you will receive almost nothing. Ask for more and you may just actually get more. This is "Negotiations 101" and the city and DOE use our timid stances against us. The city-DOE were very successful in 2005 and have been trying to finish off the job of completely crippling the UFT ever since. Our "Let's be Reasonable and Responsible" strategy fortunately is not being copied by unions around the country.

The Detroit Free Press offers a behind the scenes look at the General Motors-United Auto Workers negotiations. That strike has gone on for 19 days. Experienced negotiators talk in this piece about what goes on prior to contract talks:

The collective bargaining process starts 12 to 18 months before the two parties square off across a big table. 

“The union negotiations process can be a very daunting task even for the most seasoned labor relations leaders. So it’s never too early to start the bargaining preparation process," said [former Fiat Chrysler director of labor economics Colin] Lightbody in the webinar Bargaining Preparation.

Both sides usually review previous negotiations, study old notes and analyze the personalities of the other sides' bargainers.  

“In negotiations, past behavior is often a good predictor of future behavior. Are there any patterns? For example, does the union initially ask for general wage increases in every year of the contract, but then later settle for a general wage increase in year one and then lump sum payments in subsequent years of the contract?” Lightbody said.

In negotiating with the UFT, the city and DOE do the studying and figure out quickly the UFT will ask for little and settle for even less. Do you think they get hysterical laughing when they know how soft the UFT will be?

The Detroit Free Press piece goes on by quoting Art Schwartz, a former GM labor negotiator, on the days leading up to the actual bargaining:
“We used to call it being in the locker room,” it means you haven’t taken the field yet. You’re trying to figure out the union’s position, get cost and come up with a list of demands. Both sides know they have to move, so the first offer on both sides tends to be extreme and that is when bargaining begins."

As stated already, the UFT does not take any extreme positions, and has not in many years. I know this having served on two Contract Negotiating Committees. We lose before the process starts.

Someone is going to comment that I can't compare the UFT to a private sector negotiation. Well how about comparing the UFT to the Chicago Teachers Union where 94% voted to authorize a strike now set for October 17? CTU teachers were offered 16% pay increases over five years. Why did management make such a substantial offer that has not been accepted? Because the CTU asked for a whole lot more than money in their contract demands.

Here is an excerpt from a January piece on the start of bargaining:
Pay and benefit increases are atop the union’s list of demands, as [CTU President Jesse] Sharkey said CPS’ pay rate has fallen below other districts. But the union is also pushing for more investments inside the classroom, calling for reduced class sizes and new hires to help fill critical staffing shortages.

“We will be told these demands are unrealistic, the price tag is too high, it’d be nice but it’s just too expensive. Bullcrap,” Sharkey told media Tuesday.

“If we can afford a billion dollars for [the] Riverwalk, a billion dollars for Lincoln Yards, then we can afford a billion dollars to invest in the children of the city of Chicago for our future," he said. 

Union leaders have long called for additional counselors, nurses and librarians in their schools and are now demanding improved staffing ratios.  They also want the district to put an end to student-based budgeting and add 100 sustainable community schools on the South and West sides the city.

We are told in NYC that we can't demand lower class sizes because the money would have to come from decreasing teacher raises. The city only has so much money and anything to lower class size or lower guidance ratios would have to come from some of the funds set aside for our salary increases. In Chicago, the Chicago Teachers Union doesn't care about how they will look. They are demanding more than a raise.

Now you will tell me that the CTU doesn't have the Taylor Law to contend with where public sector employees in NYS are fined two days pay for each day out on strike. That doesn't seem to worry Transport Workers Union Local 100. New York City Transit Workers have been without a contract since May. Have you seen their demands? Their demands last contract were seven pages long. Nobody will call their demands milquetoast. Clearly, they did better than the UFT at the bargaining table in the prior round. Now look at their hard hitting television commercials that they have just released.

You don't have to keep taking the punches in the stomach teachers and other UFT members. Demand a whole lot more and don't take no for an answer. 2022 when our contract is up is not that far off. The UFT acted like a real union at one time. It can happen again. It's up to all of us to make it happen.