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Updated: Done Deal

June 24, 2011

No layoffs: Union agrees to concessions in budget deal

by Geoff Decker, at 9:10 pm

Plans to lay off 4,100 teachers were averted late Friday evening as part of a deal struck between the Bloomberg administration, the City Council and the teachers unions.

At least two union concessions and restoration money from the City Council were negotiated into the deal in order to save the jobs.

The first concession is that all one-year teaching sabbaticals are suspended for the 2012-2013 school year. The sabbaticals allow teachers to remain partially-paid while they take an extended leave of absence. The agreement will not apply to the health restorations.

A city aide confirmed the deal and estimated that the suspended sabbaticals would save the city $17 million.

The second concession is that teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve, or ATR, will be redeployed to fill substitute teaching positions, which are currently filled by teachers who work on a per diem basis. The daily rate for substitutes is approximately $154.97  (and $180/day for subs who have filled in for longer than 30 days). That money would be saved because the ATR, a pool of teachers without full time positions who remain on payroll, would be able to replace those spots. Under the agreement, each week teachers from ATRs can be sent to a different school in their district.

Put together, the concessions are expected to save the city a total of $60 million.

“I want to thank all the parties involved in this agreement for their willingness to come together to prevent the harm that would come to our students from a massive loss of public school teachers,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in a statement. “In particular I’d like to cite the key role played by Council Speaker Christine Quinn and her members and staff, along with Chancellor Dennis Walcott and the DOE officials who worked with us to find ways to prevent what could have been a disaster for our schools.”

The budget deal also found money to keep open 20 firehouses that were slated to close under Bloomberg’s budget. More than 1,000 jobs in non-uniform and non-pedagogical titles could not be saved from the deal, however.

It’s not immediately clear how long the agreement would last, or whether it requires approval from then entire union membership. A press conference with UFT President Michael Mulgrew is scheduled in downtown Manhattan at 10:30 p.m. tonight.

Chancellor Walcott emailed principals later Friday night to inform them of the budget agreement and said to expect their budgets by Monday afternoon. He alluded to the anticipated cuts, which he called “difficult, but necessary, decisions.”

“Each school will face difficult choices, but I am confident that you are the best group of principals in the history of New York City’s public schools and will meet these challenges head on,” Walcott wrote in the email. He did not specify the percent of the cuts.

The City Council still needs to vote on the final budget, which it has until Thursday, when the 2011 fiscal year ends.

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  • Anonymous

    Millionaires not taxed.

    The societally worthless (and disastrous) activities of the financial sector rewarded with obscene bonuses. War profiteers making record sums of money. Meanwhile, people who do the work that builds and protects our society- the people who create a future for all of us – see their livelihoods eroded.Not now, apparently, but soon, people are going to notice that the only ones making the “necessary” sacrifices are the poor, the working class and the fast diminishing so-called middle class.And don’t repeat the lies. There is plenty of wealth here. It’s just in the hands of the very very few.

  • Vote NO!

    I  don’t  see  why  that  would  be  the  case?  ATRs  were in  front  of  the  classroom  every  day  last  year.  They  can’t  be  in  2  classrooms  at  once.  This  should  have  no  effect  on  F-status  positions.  It  shouldn’t  even  impact per diem  substitutes.

  • Larry Littlefield

    MSNBC says 2,900 fewer, for a total reduction thus including previous attrition of far of 1 in 12.  More next year, particularly if the Wall Street bailout boomlet fizzles out, as it will eventually.

    This is the real UFT victory.  They didn’t agree to do any extra work in exchange for the rising number of teachers in retirement as a result of 25/55, and falling number of children in the classroom.  Even with a rising share of public funds going to the schools, and NYC spending per student now sky high instead of low, the quality of education is going down.  Less for more.

    All I can say is 20 years from now, don’t expect people to agree that more money into the schools will improve them.  I for one have learned my lesson.  All you’d get is 20/50 retirement, followed by a gradual return to the 1970s.

  • Larry Littlefield

    If you are willing to wait 10 years to be a teacher, then sign on for the $25,000 per year (or the inflation-adjusted equivalent) you will get as pay and benefits are repeatedly cut for new hires to offset the various enrichments of those cashing in and moving out, then it might be possible.

    Of course to be fair, those in your generation might be in similar straights in other professions.  Generation Greed has been active across the society, not just in the NYC public schools.  Wake up or it will keep getting worse, but it might keep getting worse even if you do wake up.

  • Larry Littlefield

    When you took 25/55 you took a mile.  That mile will come from somewhere.  The next 20 year are about from whom.

    I get the feeling that folks on this board have no idea how massive the cost of additional years in retirement and fewer years worked are.  But I guarantee the UFT knew.

    I’ll say it again — one year paid to not work for each year working is not “retirement,” which implies a modest period of work after a long period of contribution.  Another word is required.  And 25/55/80 at death on average is one year paid to do nothing for each year worked.

  • WATCHDOG

    WE ARE THE UNION

    Today we have seen one of the reasons why it is so important to join a UNION. Make no mistake that if the union did not exist we would not be celebrating today the success of saving all of these jobs and averting the destruction that this layoff would have caused on the education of the students who we serve throughout this city.  What I find disappointing though is the fact that many of us stayed on the sidelines when we were called upon to protest outside of our own school or at the many different citywide rallies held over the last few months. Let it be known that our voices need to be heard and the only way that we can protect ourselves and preserve those things that are important to us and to the education of our students is to stand up together. REMEMBER, YOU ARE THE UNION AND ONLY YOU CAN PRESERVE THAT UNION. See you at the next  rally !! 

  • FleaBoo

    I have been waiting to teach since 2009….I am moving on….I will try to find something outside my the field of teaching…terrible.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=711858292 Paul Rubin

    Education is the early 1970′s and 60′s was infinitely better than what we got after NYC shot its schools in the head firing 15,000 teachers. The problems we saw in the 80′s and 90′s were largely the fall-out from that event dooming a generation of children. Actually two, and permanently wrecking other aspects of the profession.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=711858292 Paul Rubin

    If there are nearly 3000 retirements, that’s nearly the equivalent of the original 1500 retirements and 4500 layoffs. The numbers have changed a few times but in the end, this was a whole lotta nothing with no losers but the kids. Think about it folks. With 3000 retirements, plus invariably another 1000 or so leave, the necessary savings was already achieved without a single layoff necessary. Bloomberg saves face a bit in that the DOE gets its budget to the same number and he extracts a minor concession (sabbaticals for only one year) and a non-concession since the DOE had the power to do whatever it wants with ATRs as long as it pays them. The UFT saves face is that there are no layoffs.

    In the meantime, my school has at least 6 retirements plus 3-5 others at issue for leaving and projected budget cuts means increased class size, disruptions of programs, and in the end only the students will be missing out. I’ll still be getting paid twice a month. My life will be largely intact. All sides need to be ashamed of themselves. The UFT should have just sat there and smiled. And Bloomberg continues to show the truth of himself as a very large baby who can’t always get his way and then has to backtrack. At least Chris Christie in NJ says what he means and THEN screws teachers over flamboyantly.

  • Larry Littlefield

    The wrecking of the profession began a few years after the 25/55 in 1968.  It didn’t happen immediately because they claimed it would be “free” and didn’t start paying for it until later.

    Was that the only factor?  No, there were debts, but we have those now too.

    The only difference this time is that there was similar recklessness in the whole country this time, not just in NYC.  How that will affect things, I don’t know.  But the ability of public employees to move outside the city and leave it in ruins may not be as valuable this time around.

  • Larry Littlefield

    If you want to see the big picture, read this post.  It was written in mid-2008, but I had said many of the same things years earlier.  It just keeps getting worse.

    http://www.r8ny.com/blog/larry_littlefield/generational_equity_and_the_legacy_of_today_s_politicians.html

  • Mr. Shoop

    As an old dude myself, I see this as a somewhat ok deal. (It could have been a lot worse) Jobs are protected for another year and the suspensions of sabbaticals really does not effect the average teacher. However, I am not too keen/sure about ATR’s being shuffled around on a weekly basis. I do have three questions: 1) Does this “deal” have to be voted on by all UFT members? 2) Will Bloomie come up with yet another manufactured crisis to get rid of LIFO next year? 3) Will Evan, Sydney, Ruben and the rest o thef E4E hacks finally pack up and get out of teaching forever.

  • Larry Littlefield

    “Millionaires not taxed.”
    They are taxed less than middle class people at the federal level, because they control the federal government.  Here in New York, however, we not only have a large progressive state income tax but also a progressive local income tax, and the highest overall tax burden in the country.

    Public employee retirement income, however, IS NOT TAXED under the New York State and New York City income taxes.  Not one dime, no matter how high that retirement income or total income are.  It sounds as if the other rich control this state.

  • missteacher

     Vote No has a point- there will be a need for long-term
    people in buildings. It will be better for the kids as well to see familiar
    faces. In my school we have had two day-to-day subs every day all year. They
    have pretty regular programs, and have been cheaper (according to my principal)
    so I don’t see why an ATR has to be shuffled from borough to borough. I hope
    this is not a ploy to continue making ATRs miserable enough to quit. We also
    have an ATR in my school who happens to be a terrific and dedicated teacher,
    with a regular program, so we also need to let go of the idea that ATRs are dead
    wood who just want a paycheck. That may be true in isolated cases but not for
    most.

  • ed in the apple

    School budgets will be out Monday PM, will be interesting to see the percent cut per school, as to pensions a DOW of 13,000 would move pensions to a back burner … and, yes, I think a membership ratification is required ,,, Tuesday in school ???

  • Brody’sMom

    I am reading all of these negative comments and I am just happy to still have a job.  I am currently finishing my fourth year of teaching and have been stressed out for almost the entire year worrying whether or not I would be laid off.  I love teaching and I am thankful to the UFT.  

  • Anon.

    $180 is the full cost for the DOE to hire a per-diem sub. The other $34 per day goes toward fringe benefits (workman’s comp, FICA, etc.). 

  • Anon.

    $180 is the full cost for the DOE to hire a per-diem sub. The other $34 per day goes toward fringe benefits (workman’s comp, FICA, etc.). 

  • Larry Littlefield

    No it won’t.  All those retroactive pension enrichments were deemed affordable based on an 8.0% return from 2000, which would require a 10.0% return on stocks, which would require a DOW of close to 40,000.

    Not only do the actual returns to investors not support that level of price, but they don’t support the current price either — unless the dollars stocks are priced in are going to lose a lot of their value through inflation.

    Not only that, but the Teacher Retirement system has $23 billion in assets but assumes for actuarial purposes that it has $31 billion in assets.  Frankly, if that fund isn’t to go to zero, money paid in should equal money paid out to give it time to recover, and that might mean another several $billion out of the schools.

    People have been denying, denying denying while taking, taking taking for years.  It’s like global warming.

  • A former Teacher

    I would like a complete breakdown.  What are these so called fringe benefits? I have been told again and again that per diem subs have absolutely no benefits.  Administrators have gone as far to tell me not to get into situations where I could get hurt because there is no insurance.

  • michael

    The reason for sending these teachers to different schools each day are obvious. Try working at different schools,and with different students on a daily basis as a substitute, and see how long you will continue teaching. As a retired teacher we all know that substitute teachers have a bulls-eye on their back. They will not get the respect from students that know they are not being graded by these sub’s. Thanks alot Mulgrew, the mayor was never going to lay off teacher’s anyway. He was bluffing from the beginning and you fell for it.

  • michael

    The reason for sending these teachers to different schools each day are obvious. Try working at different schools,and with different students on a daily basis as a substitute, and see how long you will continue teaching. As a retired teacher we all know that substitute teachers have a bulls-eye on their back. They will not get the respect from students that know they are not being graded by these sub’s. Thanks alot Mulgrew, the mayor was never going to lay off teacher’s anyway. He was bluffing from the beginning and you fell for it.

  • michael

    See if you will continue being happy after one,or two years going to different schools,with different students on a daily basis. It takes several weeks just to learn the names of the students in your class. You will never know the students you are teaching.

  • Larry Littlefield

    I don’t think you get it.  The amount of money spent on teachers has soared, and will continue to soar, and you will be collectively doing less and less in return.  And it’s irrevocable, as a result of all those pension deals.

    Just watch as less and less is provided in education.  That is what you won.  And it was a done deal in the early months of 2008.

    Anything afterward is just a detail. And it is only Bloomberg’s ego that prevents him from admitting that its game over for the NYC public schools, all with far more spent on them than 15 years ago relative to other places.  Lots more money for nothing.

    Layoffs would have been a win too.  I guess this is more of a win, because of the off chance that some of those laid off might have come back in a decade bitter as hell at those who came before.   But one thing is for sure, there should be no hiring for five to ten years, because more hiring = layoffs.

  • I noticed that…

    I am truly happy to know that you and 4,000 other teachers will not be laid off.  Unfortunately, close to a l,000 ATRs and future ATRs from closing schools will be sacrificing their profession by becoming second class citizens so newbies can keep their jobs.  When you see an ATR sub in your school, please thank him or her because the next day another ATR will be in your school and you will need to thank that person.  Do you really think this is fair?

    .  Do you really think this is fair?

  • dba

    What happens to per diem teachers, especially those with classifications such as ESL? Will ATR teachers have to go through subcentral to find assignments? Will subcentral give assignments to ATR’s before giving them to per diem teachers in the system?

  • Dspecoraro

    I am sorry – you cannot end the hiring freeze until ALL ATR’s receive a regular assignment.

  • Geoff

    I’ve received clarification on the daily sub rate. Originally, we had the $154.97 figure in (and linked to a DOE web page), but we were corrected by the DOE. After this comment, I double checked with the DOE and they admitted they gave me wrong info. I’ve updated. Sorry about the confusion.

  • Charters Work

    The ATR’s shuold be placed in to pasture.  At my school we do not has ATR’s who they do not teach.  This is abserd to beleive that this can happen in the nyc system of only public schools were teachers are not doing what they has to do and where teachers like myself are serving the Charter population where parents know the difference  between public ed and charter ed.  My boss he knows that I am a great worker and so be my colleaugues where we all teach day in and day out for our kids.  Charter schools will prieval in the end and this is what I mean by that the public system just is not that smart.  I beleive I can fly and touch that sky. 

  • bee

    Charter schools will prieval in the forest primeval. If you can fly and touch the sky, that’s some Kool- Aid your drinking!

  • John G

    Seriously, you’re not going to delete this comment?

  • Charters Work

    I for one am shocked at the amount of teachers this the nyc public school has within the schools.  At least Charters schools has the quality educators such as myself and others who valew the childrens needs and teach with special curriculims to enforce a unique style of engagements and learnings.  Some teachers who are mostly ATR’s should be fired because they don’t know how to teach and how to give a lesson standardized.  At my school we have varius programs that enrich and engage the students needs for what we teach at them.  There is no public schools that can be better than my school and the parents of Harlem will tell you so much as that.  We have fighting for our community and we will be here for many many years to surface.  Charter schools are the wave of this future and public schools are being this left behind where we can no longer use these schools as the basis for an education for the pride and democracy.  We have had enough and we Charter members will see to it that we will move into the public schools and take over buildings and show them difference between us and publics schools teachings and styles of writings and math.

  • John G

    I’m happy for no layoffs as well, but there weren’t ever going to be layoffs in the first place.
    And now, colleagues -many of whom are guilty of only having higher salaries and teaching in schools that closed around them- will have their careers turned into shams as ineffectual subs who report, as surely they will, to different schools every week. Strangers at their own jobs and targets for every tabloid newspaper staff writer in the city.

    Their story is why this lawsuit is so important, and why this deal was so very very bad.

  • Lady

    I do hope you check your spelling when your educating young minds in charter schools as I have counted close to ten misspelled words which warrants major concern on my end.

  • ESL Teacher

    Chances are pretty slim.  Other than “New Schools”, the DOE hasn’t been hiring Gen Ed (Common Branch) Elementary Teachers for the last several years…if you want to be hired in the city, go back to school to be certified in a shortage area (ESL, Bilingual Education, Special Education, etc.)  Good luck even finding this info on the DOE hiring sites, they seem to have removed mention of shortage areas with a blanket statement “At this time, the New York City Department of Education has not determined teacher hiring needs for the 2011-12 school year.”

  • John G

    The DOE never had the power to send ATRs to different schools each week. I have been hearing this asserted all day and, franky, it sounds to me like the union talking points coming across the blogesphere.

    If the DOE did always have this power, then why doesn’t anyone know an ATR who has experienced this week to week placement so far?

    Make no mistake, this was a fairly major consession in the ongoing negotiation of job security for nyc public school teachers. Now these poor poor union brothers and sisters will be compared to $154 subs..by the mayor, in the press, in negotiations.. as their existence as educators is marginalized in an attempt to establish a clear path to wholesale dismissal of teachers (closer the school, fires the teachers). We are now one, perhaps two steps away from that becoming a reality. And it’s because this union made this concession at this time.

    It was all the mayor could get, but it was enough to retry the public pressure on LIFO, and easy dismissals, all over again next year .. as though all the crap from the last 12 moths had never happened.

  • I want to teach

    Why not I’m sorry to say I spent the past year subbing at a school were I had  a ICT class with an ATR which was terrible.
    Some ATRs are great other ATRs are terrible, however with this hiring freeze schools cannot hire teachers that they want only what exists in this limited pool. I need a job so end the freeze so teacher like me can find one.

  • Jdbalthazar

    THE ONLY REASON THE UNION DID THIS WAS TO SAVE $325,000 IN UNION DUES THAT IS NOW SECURE FOR MORE YEARS FROM THOSE 3000+ SAVED JOBS.

    Again, we trade away to old for the new. This is another reason I hate paying Union dues…Mulgrew keeps making these deals with NO contract negotiations!!!

    As of October we haven’t had a raise for 3-years. Nearly every other Union in NYC received 4% and 4%. The strategy is to wait…and we’ll never get retroactive pay, we’ll have gone 6 or 7 years without a raise; then get some measly sum that’s called a win by the Union.

  • Jdbalthazar

    That’s $325,000 a month in Union Dues they saved! $3,900,000 a year to pay the Union that can’t pick a strategy, can’t negotiate a contract, can’t pick a winner, actually…can’t pick at all. Stand on the side lines and give it all away!

  • Crhelper

    The union agreed to this to save jobs and union dues,great. The mayor agreed to this so he can continue to complain about the seniority rules and we will go through the same threats of layoffs next year,great.
    The big losers are the children in our public schools who still must go through meaningless tests and larger class size and the dedicated ATR and substitute teachers who their union may have just abandoned.

  • Unfairlyblamingtheteachers

    Check out Chaz’s analysis on what will happen as a result of this, for the ATRs:

    http://chaz11.blogspot.com/

    What does anyone else think of this?

  • Wondering….

    ‘any definitive word yet on whether the rank and file have to approve this?

  • http://twitter.com/BNiche B

    “I beleive I can fly and touch that sky.”

    This right here is some EPIC trolling. The spelling errors, the grammatical mistakes, the user name, and YES, the R. Kelly lyric quote to top it all off! I applaud you, good sir or ma’am. Some much-needed applause. I needed that laugh.

  • Michael Fiorillo

    Charters Work,

    That’s satire you’re posting, right?

  • Tiredofyou

    Lets see Bloomberg (0,3)
    e4e (0,3)
    Klein (0,3)
    Littlefield(0,3)

    Charter schools soon to be (0,3) Great week

  • ASTRAKA

     Delete e$e and Littlefield. You are inflating their egos undeservedly.;)

  • Tiredofyou

    Your so right sorry It just was so much fun to do that

  • Floridacrazy

    Bloomberg did it again.  He got something he wanted from the UFT  — now he fully controls the ATRs.  Bloomberg couldn’t fire the ATRs so he had the UFT sell the ATRs down the river.  With all the schools that Bloomberg wants to close, how many more ATRs will there be in the coming school year.  There is no way that the UFT is going to win the lawsuit — Mulgrew knows it, but he gave in to Bloomberg anyway.  As long as Mulgrew isn’t an ATR himself, he couldn’t care less.  Mulgrew knew Bloomberg wouldn’t go through with all those layoffs –  but Bloomberg is a stronger fighter.  Bloomberg knew that Mulgrew would cave in — Mulgrew would want to look as if he saved the jobs of 4,100 teachers so Bloomberg stayed strong — insisting that layoffs were the only way to balance the budget.  Why weren’t there concessions from the Fire Department to keep the 20 fire houses open.  The 20 fire houses should never be closed — but the mayor didn’t ask them for concessions. 

    The same thing happened last year.  Bloomberg threatened layoffs all year long and at the last minute the layoffs were averted.  Mulgrew caved in — no raises = no layoffs.  There were no layoffs — but I became an ATR anyway because of the budget cuts.  I’m not a teacher — I’m a secretary — but I was forched to become an ATR to save the job of a teacher.  Teachers come first.  I have 18 years of satisfactory work — I can’t retire — but I am stuck as an ATR.  I was placed in a school as an ATR and I was offered the position full time — but with the upcoming budget cuts — will I be out of a job again — excessed again?

    Bloomberg knows that there will be oh so many new ATRs come September because of the budget cuts that schools will be facing when principals get their budgets on Monday afternoon.  How many ATRs will look to retire if they could.  How many of Bloomberg’s young newbies will become ATRs. 

    I pay my union dues and what do I get — Mulgrew sold me down the river.  How many schools will I get to visit?  Will there be any secretarial jobs for me to cover?   

     

  • Chimerik727

    DC 37 will have layoffs. including the schools. UUGGHHH we members of dc 37 really need to take over and stop being so complacent.lillian roberts and pals should have included something ,anything  into the pot.that generated this budget agreement.kudos to mulgrew,smart move on his part. the mayor looked like he was eating dirt when he had to thank the uft. and you could feel the knives coming out for roberts and dc 37 when he let us all know how one union did not step up to the plate.  unemployement here i come.

  • liberalteacher

    If you are an example of the “exemplary” teachers these charter schools employ, god help the students you are trying to instruct.  I think you need to return to school to brush up on your spelling and grammar.  Did you go to a public school?  I did and I am proud of the education I received.  By the way, I have been employed as a teacher for the past 33 years.

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