District Council 37 is a large city union that has around 100,000 members. They have been without a contract since May 2021. According to this piece in Labor Press, "Negotiations with the city have not yet started" for a new contract. The state of our unions has sunk so low that the city can go over a year without even opening negotiations for a new agreement with DC37. Municipal worker unions in NYC have so little power so the city can basically ignore us.
DC 37 held a rally on June 16 at Foley Square. Several hundred members showed up according to the Labor Press article. What are they looking for in terms of a raise?
“We’re not getting the raises that make a difference. Everything is going up but our paychecks,” DC 37 president Shaun D. Francois told LaborPress before the rally.
Francois, head of DC 37’s Local 372, which represents school employees such as health aides, lunchroom workers, and crossing guards, says that what his members are paid would be a good salary in Georgia, but not in a city where studio apartments cost $2,000 a month. It would take $30 an hour for a two-person household to have a decent standard of living here, he continued.
“Are we going to get that? No.” he said. “We’re going to get the best we can and the most we can.”
The best we can probably means the 2%- 3% the city is setting aside for salary increases for government employees in this year's budget. They concede that they are not going to get raises for their members so they can have a decent standard of living.
For anyone who thinks the DC 37 negotiations will not impact UFT members because we are separate unions who bargain individually with the city, think again and then again. Long-time readers know that city contracts are based on pattern bargaining. One municipal union settles on a contract with the city and whatever salary increase they get sets a pattern and then other unions receive basically the same increase that follows the pattern. Pattern bargaining has been upheld by arbitration panels many times.
Two weak unions usually set the pattern for all NYC government workers: DC 37 or the UFT.
If the best DC 37 can do is to pull out several hundred of its 100,000 members for a rally, it is obvious they and then the UFT too will have virtually no leverage at the bargaining table and will be at the mercy of Mayor Adams. Whether or not the members on the UFT Negotiating Committee bargain openly or behind closed doors is rather irrelevant if DC 37 will soon set the pattern for our contract that Michael Mulgrew will happily adhere to.
I personally would rather use the British worker approach of threatening industrial action and then striking if necessary. The latest workers to vote to strike are the British Airways ground staff at Heathrow Airport.
The GMB union said 95% of BA staff at Heathrow airport who voted backed strike action after BA failed to roll back a 10% pay cut imposed during the pandemic. Around 700 workers had been balloted, of whom 80% voted.
95% yes vote and an 80% turnout. What was the turnout of active teachers in our recent UFT election? Around 20%.
Activism matters, ladies and gentlemen. Anonymous comments won't cut it.
17 comments:
We have power but we don't know how to use it. We just had an election. Better than usual but not much better. Most didn't vote. Most that did voted for the status quo.
Is there any data on how a specific school voted? I am in a small school. I pushed and prodded, stuffed mailboxes with United for Change flyers, mailed ballots for members and so on. But how did I do? Can I get data on how my school voted?
DC 37 has the courage to rally for raise.
Does the UFT have the same courage?
Hey Shelley,
We asked for school by school turnout but UFT would only give district breakdown which I posted. Thanks for helping with election.
The rally probably didn't do much good with only a few hundred people showing up.
With the Taylor Law and pattern bargaining as its tools, the political/legal system in NY is extremely anti-union.
The NY state legal system is not a system aligned with justice. IT is a system that enforces the repression of organized labor. It is built on human rights violations. Giving it the name of "legality" or "law" misrepresents its true subversionary nature. The NY state legal system destroys justice by violating the basic human right of government workers.
We need to organize and go on strike to achieve fair wage increases in the face of government sponsored inflation. Our current high inflation is a direct consequence of government mismanagement of public finance and spending. It is the result of weak economic planning and lack of strategic leadership.
“General Strike” is what we need. As a comrade once said!
Does that make me a communist?
Hallelujah! Roe versus Wade has been overturned! Protecting our future students right to life!
If not communists per se, then just "useful idiots."
Pick your pronouns.
Yes
It's certainly one way to ensure enrollment will go up in 5 years...
Looks like the UFT will get whatever raise DC37 fights for.
Being against strikes is an anti worker, pro ruling class stance. You honestly have no purpose in a union if that is how you feel.
@1044 am. Now will you be issuing these future students fake grades--because dems want you too? Just curious.
If nyc teachers can't be bothered to vote, they won't go on strike. Only a small percentage want a strike and some of those will back down when nyc cuts their med benefits. I'm not anti strike but many of my colleagues feel differently.
Breaking Points Krystal says Biden social security pick wants to make cuts. We're still blue no matter who, right?
Supreme Court decision returns the power back to the each state. There will still be millions of abortions in states that do not value life.
The grade fraud is imposed and ignored by those who do not value life whether that life is one of a teacher, student, or a baby. I am sure that the politicians who are pro-abortion are also the politicians who are in charge of the most chaotic cities and the worst school systems. They simply do not care about people.
I agree with 2:36; the teachers will not strike and simply accept everything and anything. The lack of participation in the UFT election left me quiet dejected.
@waitingforsupport @ 1:34 EXACTLY! Boo hoo, they'll get a bad review if they don't.
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