Teachers union President Michael Mulgrew says securing billions in retroactive pay for his members is “a very large issue for us” — even as Mayor de Blasio insists the city can’t possibly afford such a huge payout.
Although he was careful not to get into the nitty-gritty of labor negotiations, Mulgrew said he expects to collect as much as $3.4 billion in back pay from the new administration.
“It’s a big issue for us. It is a very large issue with us,” Mulgrew declared on WNYC radio.
“I don’t believe our school system is going to get better if we continue to lose half the teachers who walk into New York City schools. We believe we should have a raise, and we’ve been working for a long time without a raise.”
The United Federation of Teachers reported on its Web site last year that the five-year attrition rate for teachers hired in 2007-08 was 36.1 percent.
All of the city’s estimated 300,000 employees are working under expired contracts.
But teachers have been working that way longer than just about anyone else, under a deal that expired in October 2009.
The UFT is demanding the same raises won by other unions in the last round of bargaining, a 4 percent raise in each of two years, compounded.
Then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg rejected that package after the recession hit, even as “pattern bargaining” that gave virtually all unions the same percentage raises became a hallmark of his administration.
De Blasio said last year there was “no way in the world” the city would pay the full retro due all its workers, a sum that would exceed a staggering $7 billion.
But Mulgrew, who had a frosty relationship with Bloomberg, said he was optimistic of finding common ground with the new Democratic administration.
“We have had a long history of working with city administrations when they want to work with us,” Mulgrew said.
“We think we can work at the negotiating table.”
Late last week, de Blasio’s labor team quietly settled with 200 environmental officers, who fought for years to settle a contract that covered 2005 to 2007.
Mulgrew also pointed out that Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña is “absolutely” a friend to the union, a description he didn’t bestow on her predecessor, Dennis Walcott.
E. J. McMahon, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said the fiscal reality is that the city has to get savings from municipal unions on other fronts to generate funds for contract settlements.
“I don’t know if de Blasio has made this clear, but none of these unions can get what they’re looking for without being willing to give,” McMahon said.
“They have more than kept pace with inflation,” he added, speaking of the teachers. “They have had their pay go up.”
According to the Manhattan Institute, teachers have received $1.2 billion extra in longevity and other increases between 2009 and 2013.