The Wait is Over?: Wait for the Details Before You Decide!

Image from U.F.T. Website

At the end of my work day, a colleague stopped by with the salary specifics of the teachers' contract billed as "The wait is over!" (actually, the agreement is pending approval by the Municipal Labor Committee).  Using his Apple computer, he showed me a spreadsheet he had worked out with his predicted salary over the next nine years.  Some years looked pretty lean. One might need to tighten the belt a few more notches in these years.  He wasn't too pleased.

The U.F.T. Contract Committee readily approved the contract. Surprisingly, they approved it without even looking at it, or the Memorandum of Agreement, with one notable, recorded abstention (and apparently others unrecorded).  I read our last contract.  And, although contracts are not my preferred genre, I managed the task in a relatively short time.  Is the M.O.A. significantly longer?  What about Mom's old advice to read stuff before you sign it or sign onto it?  Maybe they take what they're told at face value.  Maybe they think they would have no additional insights to offer, but, if this is the truly the case, then why are these people on our contract committee? Or, maybe most of them just rubber stamp stuff like the Bloomberg-style P.E.P.  I'd like to think not.  

Given all this, I read Mulgrew's e-mail with great care, his attached link and the info. at the U.F.T. website.  Then, I checked other online news sources.  I read opinions on both sides.  Looking at the salary increases 2018, I couldn't help wondering whether inflation might readily turn any gains into losses. Mulgrew mentioned a "$1,000 signing bonus upon ratification." The wording was probably wrong because it made the bonus sound akin to bribery:  You sign it and we got a nice, little reward for you!

I wasn't surprised Mulgrew put a positive spin on things.  And, I am by no means an expert in contract law, but I was surprised by all the important details missing from his e-mail and from the U.F.T. website.   I was surprised he did not mention the ATRs who will suffer, particularly the older ones who are priced out of the market.  Putting aside any sympathy for the moment, we all might take a moment to reflect about the Bloomberg era.  Could we have another hostile mayor down the road?  There, but for the grace of God, go I!  There was no mention of the fact that the new PROSE schools will be staffed by non-unionized workers and that, indeed, two hundred schools might be non-unionized, or ten percent.  Is the union stabbing itself in the back?  A lot of important details seemed to be missing.

I'm sure the contract committee knew a great deal more about the contract than the contents of Mulgrew's letter.  Yet, it worries me.  I have always thought what is not said is just as important, and sometimes more important, than what is actually said.  I fear the contract will be speedily pushed through to a positive vote by glossing over some serious concerns.  As educators, we owe it to our colleagues and to our profession to take the time to better familiarize ourselves with the entire contents of the contract.   

When Mulgrew was asked about objections that other unions have to the U.F.T.-set "pattern" established here, Mulgrew responded, "Talk to them in a couple of days, after I talk to them."  I'm not sure what he means, but as a film aficionado with a very active imagination, I can't help thinking, for each of the other unions' bosses, he's gonna "make him an offer he can't refuse."  But, then, I can't imagine him manipulating the likes of the police union so easily in this day and age.  

I know there will be plenty of people trying to sell us this contract and I doubt many of them will have read much of it. Before you take anyone's words at face value, a word of caution:  Ask yourself for whom does this person work?  And, does he or she have another substantial income that might distort the view on things?  It is sad, but true.  One needs to ask oneself these things in this modern era.  As a teacher, I, for one, would like to see the contract, the primary source, in its entirety, before I vote.  I hope everyone will look past the glossy papers that will, doubtless, be stuffed in our mailboxes and seriously consider some of the unspoken issues.