Community Corner

Should Mayor Bloomberg Grant Teachers Backpay?

United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew is complaining that 94,000 teachers have not had a raise in 4 and-a0half years, and he wants Mayor Michael Bloomberg to pay up, reported the New York Daily News.  

Mulgrew says, since the last teachers contract expired in 2009, a teacher earning $54,000 in 2009 might now be earning an additional $7,000 annually if a new labor pact had been signed.  

But no contract agreement has been made between the teacher’s union and the mayor. And Mulgrew says his members now are owed more than $3.2 billion in back wages, the equivalent of two 4 percent raises Bloomberg granted to other unions but denied to the teachers after the national economic meltdown slashed city revenue in 2009.

The mayor has offered raises only if the unions grant money-saving contract concessions, most likely by having workers contribute to health care. More than 90% of the workforce pays nothing for coverage, but DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts said givebacks in that area are “not even a conversation.”


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