Will there be a contract this year? UFT’s latest communication suggests not.
On Monday, the 500-member negotiating committee will meet. That highly anticipated event, the culmination of a year of negotiations, will be followed immediately by the final UFT executive board meeting of the 2022-2023 school year. The very next afternoon, the June Delegate Assembly will be held. Big meetings like this are rarely so close together. You’d think the contract was ready for a vote.
But, as the DA invite email shows below, there may not be a contract vote this year after all. This comes as a bit of a surprise. Other unions like DC37 and PBA finished bargaining in February and April, respectively. And UFT leadership was signaling just weeks ago that the City and the DOE wanted the contract done quickly as much as they did. Then, almost immediately, they started to shift that tune.
It’s clear to me that UFT leadership wanted a contract before summer. They wanted to deliver that sub-inflation ‘pattern’ into our hands in time for our much-needed vacations. And in all likelihood, they wanted to encourage a yes vote by leveraging summer vacation against voting UFT members. But, as months went by, it appeared that they had misjudged the City and the DOE. Having signaled all over the place that they would only use ‘soft’ organizing tactics, UFT leadership showed that they had no leverage in negotiations. That summer contract they wanted was going to be harder to close than they thought. .
Then, the City started to play hardball. We were ambushed with a calendar that arbitrarily expanded our work calendar well beyond 180 days. That was big news for teachers, who erupted in outrage all over social media. But the real slight, at least according to early UFT communications, was the DOE’s unconfirmed adoption of the pilot workday. In retaliation, UFT leadership entered us into a nonsensical game of chicken that will now likely stick us with 37.5 minutes of tutoring after school each day, and no Other Professional Work (OPW) or Parent Engagement (PE) time. In other words, after a campaign that emphasized teacher-directed time, the result of contractual negotiations for this September may be that control of our time is gutted more than ever before. A terrible result – and a blow that will be compounded by a Unity-imposed ’10 % health insurance pay-cut’ whose deadline is closing in fast.
There is still time, of course. Maybe UFT leadership will get a last-minute agreement finalized this weekend. But under these circumstances, how good could it be? With such harsh wording in the DA email, isn’t it implicit that there’s no way we’re close to a good deal – one which would come close to meeting UFC’s 5 core demands? I sincerely doubt it.
15 Comments
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BaconUFT
UFC’s core demands were agreed to by a central committee comprised of leaders/representatives selected by each caucus in the coalition: New Action, MORE, Retiree Advocate, EONYC, ICE, and Solidarity. To that end, they reflect the shared contractual priorities of every organization that makes up UFC. Some caucuses, including New Action, have more extensive lists of their own. But this is the list of five that all of the progressive caucuses collectively determined were the most important.
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Mike D.
Question: Why is there going to be a DA on a Tuesday instead of Wednesday next week? If it looks like there is no contract as the Mulgrew email sates, why have a DA meeting a day early?
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BaconUFT
It was already going to be rescheduled. Wednesday and after would be impossible for a lot of high school teachers due to afternoon proctoring, whereas Tuesday would work logistically for pretty much everyone as long as they were over the phone and didn’t have non-DOE conflicts.
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Mike D.
Is it possible, that Mulgrew could lie to the 500 Member Committee that a tentative contract has not been reached, but then tell the Executive board that a contract has indeed been reached so they and then the DA would push through a vote on Tuesday?
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BaconUFT
That would not work. The meetings are 5 minutes apart and in the same room. Some members from the first meeting might even stay to watch the second. I don’t think that would be prudent of him.
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Mike D.
Today might turn out to be the day we find out if we are getting a contract or if it is going to get negotiated over the summer. (Which would more than likely be rushed through without many teachers having time to study it) If it happens over the summer, pretty much the only folks in the DA who will be around to vote for it will be the Unity Crew. Most other members will be too busy enjoying their summer vacation to keep up with UFT politics. Whats the over/under that we get it done this week as opposed to the summer? I am guessing that it’s going to get done over the summer. I say this because there have been absolutely no leaks as to a definite deal getting done today/tomorrow. Also, if we had a deal, I’m sure that Mulgrew would have already blasted an email saying that, “We got the best deal that we could get”. Thoughts???
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BaconUFT
I don’t think we’re getting a deal today. The communication over the weekend gave readers such little hope that we were anywhere close to a deal that I think it would be nearly impossible to get a yes vote at the various meetings this week, minus the executive board. I also don’t think there can realistically be a contract ratification vote over the summer, because UFT uses a ‘vote in your chapters’ model. Maybe the DA could happen though, in which case yes, it would be almost entirely Unity present. Then we might see a rushed vote in September. We’ll know more today.
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Mike D.
Just found out that my principal is at an all day district meeting. Maybe, admin are being informed today that we are 100% going back to 37.5 small group instruction time and that the DOE will not negotiate to make a change. Admin will need to start to getting ready to purchase after school curriculum and begin the scheduling process. I hope that is NOT happening though!
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BaconUFT
Possibly, that would be interesting. I haven’t heard that from all principals though.
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Joe
Are you sharing executive board info?
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BaconUFT
in a bit
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Zeke Plotkin
Please do not take this as an attack, which it isn’t, where do UFC’ core demands come from? Is it a singular caucus, the entire group of caucuses that comprise UFC or the membership through some sort of poll?