By Kathianne Boniello
Can anything go wrong for Mayor Michael Bloomberg?
The politician with the apparent golden touch practically glowed Monday as he announced at City Hall the tentative resolution of a more than 18-month contract stand-off with city teachers, avoiding a potential strike of the 80,000-strong United Federation of Teachers union.
And as Bloomberg, Gov. George Pataki, state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer), UFT President Randi Weingarten and Schools Chancellor Harold Levy praised the new deal giving city teachers a roughly 16 percent raise, kudos directed toward Albany echoed through City Hall.
Bloomberg and others repeatedly extended thanks to the politician who was conspicuously absent — state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D–Manhattan), who spent Monday in session as the Assembly passed the school governance reform bill.
The mayor, who had linked the contract talks with the school governance issue, said the contract deal was a necessary step for improving city schools.
“This is the kind of investment that no matter how painful it might be to make, we have no choice,” said Bloomberg, who added that Weingarten was a “tough but fair” negotiator.
Weingarten, who compared the proposed contract favorably to the city’s dealings with teachers before the 1970s fiscal crisis, said, “this was a very hard road.”
The deal with the UFT will raise teacher salaries by 16 percent over 30 months but also lengthen the school day by 20 minutes. The contract agreement needs to be ratified by the union’s rank-and-file and then approved by the city Board of Education. It was not clear how the school governance changes approved by the state Legislature would affect the contract deal.
The UFT leadership had voted on a strike resolution last month authorizing the union to call a walkout anytime between June and September. The resolution was to be voted on by the rank-and-file membership this month.
One Queens teacher praised the tentative deal.
“It’s not really a done deal yet, but I’ll tell you quite honestly I’m glad they came to some kind of agreement,” said Cory Bosetti, a UFT representative of PS 175 in Rego Park.
“It’s somewhat brighter now and it’s nice to have a contract before we come back in September,” Bosetti said. “I’m sorry it took so long and it took a lot of extra work, but at least we’re coming out of it with a contract.”
City teachers have said they earn approximately 24 percent less than their suburban counterparts and demanded competitive pay to help slow the drain of qualified city instructors to Long Island and other areas outside the five boroughs.
If the new contract is approved by union membership, wages for new, certified teachers would jump from $31,900 to $39,000. A teacher with more than 22 years experience plus a master’s degree would get a raise of about $11,000, with wages going from $70,000 to $81,231, the union said.
The contract is retroactive to November 2000, when the UFT’s last contract expired, and runs until May 2003.
The deal also allows the Board of Education to suspend teachers who are accused of serious crimes without pay for up to two months if charges against those teachers are found to be true, the union said.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
