The United Teachers of Los Angeles union has a tentative contract agreement after they boycotted faculty conferences and went on strike for three days in solidarity with other education workers in the district.
The salary increases in this new 3 year contract in LA will be coming every six months.
UTLA said the new three-year contract will apply from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2025, and will increase salaries for teachers in the second-largest school district in the nation.
The agreement also includes pay increases detailed below:
21% ongoing wage increase
3% effective July 1, 2022
4% effective January 1, 2023
3% effective July 1, 2023
4% effective January 1, 2024
3% effective July 1, 2024
4% effective January 1, 2025
By my elementary math, that comes to 7% per year. Go UTLA! They won lower class sizes too.
There is full retro and I don't think they will have to wait 11 years to get all of it like here in NYC. We recently did our income taxes and 2022 is the first year in many where lump sum payments from the 2014 contract that go back to 2009 were not part of it. Our accountant wondered why we made less money in 2022.
UTLA achieved this contract agreement in open bargaining. There was no cone of silence, confidentiality agreement someone had to sign be on the negotiating committee in L.A. like we have at the UFT.
UFT leadership will probably say those Los Angeles, California teachers made less money than us so they are just catching up but their union changed its leadership a few years back to take a much more militant approach to bargaining. The last two LA contracts after they went on strike in 2019 and their COVID agreement have included solid victories.
Look at the subheading of the NBC4 story on the agreement showing how just the thought of another strike moved the district:
The agreement with UTLA eliminates the possibility of another potential work stoppage after the service workers union staged a three-day strike last month.
UFT leadership is so completely out of touch and the LA salary increases are more proof on why we need a new way of bargaining here in NYC.
UFT actually had a post on their Facebook page a month ago praising the LA strike. Knowing the UFT, they will probably delete that post now. Mulgrew is a disgrace.
ReplyDeleteThe UFT is the laughingstock of unions. We also deserve a 21% wage increase over three years. Correction, the UFT is not a union.
ReplyDeleteThe UFT is an important collaborator with of the NYC Department of Finance and the DOE. The UFT is definitely not a union.
Prior to this bump, the top salary was 98k+. After this agreement it will be approximately 118k+.
ReplyDeleteOverall, LA is about 24% less expensive than NYC. The cost of living in LA is lower than in NYC thanks to far lower housing prices. On average, housing in LA is 34% cheaper than in New York City. Additionally, prices for groceries, as well as restaurant prices, are lower in Los Angeles than in NYC.
So, Los Angeles teachers will be earning more money in real dollars in New York teachers for sure with this new contract.
I think this contract needs to be used as a real wake up call to the members of the UFT. I know there's people out there who are upset with Mulgew perhaps one of them could put together a crafty tick tock or Instagram post that states the facts.
Something needs to change. How can we wake up the zombie teachers that pay no attention to what matters most, respect, compensation, and quality of work life?
Can you believe it took a lawyer threatening a blogger who dared parody the King of our Union to finally convince the blogger and a handful of his chums to halt their payments to COKE (aka COPE): wasted dollars that the Kings cuts into lines on mirrors for his political party friends and blows into smoke in the faces of his peasants (that's us)? Shame it took so long. COPE is a known scam so I am a bit surprised that a blogger as clever as the one named in the threatening legal action was still sending his dollars to fund it.
ReplyDeleteDon't waste your dollars on COKE for Mugrew.