READ THE ARBITRATION CONSENT AWARD FOR YOURSELF TO KNOW THIS WAS A UFT-CITY DEAL TO DELAY OUR MONEY AND NOT A RULING BY AN ARBITRATOR

I continue to be suspicious by how quickly the UFT and the City were able to come to an agreement to delay payment for work we did up to 11 years ago that was due to be paid this week. Half of that money will not come until the end of this month and the other half will have to wait until the end of July 2021 to be received. The delay will be almost twelve years by then from the time we did some of the work.

No other city union has agreed to postpone their back pay. If the UFT said to Mayor de Blasio, "Go ahead, make my day," when the mayor tried to withhold money the city owed us, the city would have had to back down. There would be consequences for the city's credit rating if the city refused to pay one of its bills. In court, we could demand interest. We would have had a very strong case.

Michael Mulgrew is trying to say that independent Arbitrator Martin Scheinman made the decision to split the lump sum payments due this month in half.

 Mulgrew stated on Friday:

An independent arbitrator has overturned the city’s attempt to avoid paying the final lump-sum payments for wages you earned going back to 2009 and 2010.

The arbitrator has ordered the city to pay half of the money owed now and the other half next July.

The arbitrator ordered nothing. Arbitrator Scheinman's own words:

I implored and pressured the parties to explore a possible resolution to this matter. 

The parties then negotiated a deal and asked Scheinman to write it up as a "consent award."

For those seeking legalize wording:

Consent Award – Usually the parties have reached a settlement and agreed to terms which are then incorporated into an award which can be enforced similar to a Judgment by consent. 

Why is this important?

I am sick and tired of being deceived by Michael Mulgrew, who is now trying to deflect blame to an arbitrator for a deal that Mulgrew himself was present at the hearing to negotiate and the UFT President agreed to. Mulgrew is either the architect or enabler of much of the disastrous and often deadly Department of Education policies and practices that have been implemented in the NYC schools since March. He needs to finally be held accountable now.

For those interested in reading the consent award, it's all there and we copied it below as it will sooner or later probably disappear from the UFT website.