By Amanda Grannis
As a new school year begins, New York City public school teachers, school nurses, and guidance counselors will work under a new contract. The teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), approved the nine-year, $5.3 billion contact this past June, agreeing to an 18% pay raise, as well as a back pay agreement of nearly 8% for each individual teacher’s annual salary.
The contract marked a welcome end to a five-year contract dispute between the UFT and the New York City government. Tensions between the city’s public school teachers and the city government heightened during the later years of the Bloomberg administration. While former mayor Bloomberg was in office, conflicts arose pertaining to the mayor’s proposal of new teacher evaluation systems, standardized testing, and the public disclosure of of thousands of teachers’ ratings. Gridlock resulted between the union and the city when negotiating a new contract for New York City’s estimated 110,000 teachers because of an acrimonious relationship. For nearly five years, teachers worked without a new contract, and without annual raises adjusted for yearly increases in costs of living.
New York City’s new and seasoned teachers both stand to benefit from the contract. Teaching for the New York City Department of Education is now arguably more of an attractive profession to young college graduates. With the traditional benefits of paid summers off and vacation days, new teachers can now receive an increased starting salary. Prior to the contract, starting salaries were set at $45,530. They will now increase to $56,709 over the course of the deal. Perhaps young college graduates will now be encouraged to pursue a teaching career, given that starting salaries are now better calibrated to meet the costly price of living in New York City.
So too did seasoned teachers benefit from the deal. The contract encouraged teachers with more years of experience to retire, as the city set aside a structured retiree claims settlement fund of an estimated $180 million. If an eligible teacher retired prior to June 30, 2014, they would be given their back pay in one installment from the fund. This was arguably a more attractive alternative to choosing to retire later and then receiving back pay in smaller installments over time. The New York City Department of Education too would stand to benefit, as it will be able to hire a greater quantity of new, lower-paid teachers as seasoned, higher-paid teachers retired.
Nonetheless, the city government has already encountered budgetary issues regarding this aspect of the contract. The incentive to retire has worked, perhaps too well, as the city received an increase of nearly 800 retirement applications this year. That means that the city may need to increase its $180 million settlement fund to meet these increased demands.
Though many details will need to be hammered out, optimism remains on the horizon. Hopefully, the New York City government will continue to repair its strained relationship with the UFT and its teachers. The contract, if anything, is a step in the right direction. As stated by UFT president Michael Mulgrew, the contract signifies well-deserved respect for the city’s educators, as “[t]eachers now have a fair deal.”
Links from this Article
http://www.uft.org/news/landmark-contract-moves-new-york-city-schools-and-educators-forward
http://www.uft.org/news-stories/members-ratify-historic-9-year-contract
http://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2014/09/contract-reopened-because-so-many.html
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/01/teachers-nyc-union-deal/8584305/