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ALBANY — Repeal of “Last in, first out” protection for thousands of underachieving city teachers may be approved by the Republican-controlled state Senate today — even as New York’s top union leader blasts the plan as “the Wisconsin model of politics.”
State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes ripped the proposal yesterday as “a blatant assault on the principles of collective bargaining and an attack on workingmen and -women throughout this state who are represented by labor unions.”
“I want to make it abundantly clear to our elected officials that they cannot use the Wisconsin model of politics here in New York and that the state AFL-CIO will not tolerate attempts to silence the voice of working people,” added Hughes, whose federation represents some 2½ million unionized workers.
Senate Education Chairman John Flanagan (R-Suffolk) plans to call for a vote on the Mayor Bloomberg-backed measure allowing teachers targeted for layoffs to be dismissed on the basis of teaching skills and not just seniority at a 10 a.m. meeting of his committee.
The bill would then be sent for a vote to the full Senate later in the day, where approval also was expected.
“This is a step in the direction of making sure we have the best teachers available,” said Flanagan. “Times have changed. Everything that we used to do has to be given a fresh and new look.”
Flanagan fired back at Hughes, saying, “There are a myriad of protections in this bill,” and contended that the measure “reinforces collective bargaining” by allowing unions to negotiate additional seniority protections.
Bloomberg, who has threatened to fire nearly 5,000 teachers because of the city’s looming budget gap, said teacher downsizing should be done “intelligently and not based on something that doesn’t have anything to do with the quality of education.”
“There are teachers who’ve been there for 40 years who are the best you’ll ever find anyplace, and there are teachers that have been there for 40 days that are the best you’ll find and everything in between,” he continued.
Assemblyman Jonathan Bing (D-Manhattan) is expected to introduce Flanagan’s bill in the Democrat-controlled Assembly this week, although it faces strong resistance.
Support for changing “Last in, first out” picked up steam late last week when Gov. Cuomo declared that “seniority alone is not the best measure” for layoffs.