New York City’s public-school teachers have given their new contract a passing grade.
About 77 percent of the approximately 90,000 members of the United Federation of Teachers whose votes were counted approved the long-awaited settlement, the union announced Tuesday night.
A few hundred ballots had yet to bee counted.
The last UFT contract expired in 2009.
Mayor de Blasio called the deal “transformative” and a “watershed moment for our school system.”
“This contract recognizes that our teachers are the key to our future success,” he said at a pre-K school in Queens before the results were known.
“That was not the governing philosophy for a number of years in this city and it was part of what was holding us back.”
The contract provides for an 18 percent pay raise over the nine-year term, with retroactive pay pushed out to future years.
Voting was heavier this year, but the approval margin was smaller. About 91 percent of 78,000 union members who cast ballots approved their last contract, in 2007.
The majority of teachers expressed relief.
But some criticized union leaders for keeping details about health-savings plans vague.
School-reform leaders chided the mayor for not getting more concessions to lengthen instruction time and make it easier to remove poor teachers.