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New York City and its teachers' union struck a deal Friday to secure a $900 million back-pay payout the de Blasio administration had attempted to cancel just a day earlier.
The United Federation of Teachers and City Hall agreed to pay out half of the $900 million payment this fiscal year and the second half in the following fiscal year.
The union also extracted a pledge from the city to not layoff any teachers this year and cemented a previously agreed-upon 3 percent pay hike on May 14, 2021.
“In addition, with teachers facing layoffs around New York State and the rest of the nation because of the pandemic’s damage to the economy, we were able to convince the arbitrator to add a no-layoff pledge and a guarantee that the teachers’ next contractual raise — a 3 percent increase set for May — will not be challenged by the city,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said.
The de Blasio administration on Thursday had called off the massive payout, which was due this month.
It was the last in the series of five back pay payments stemming from union negotiations between 2009 and 2011 — citing the ongoing financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan had written to the teachers union that the cancelled payment would help the city avoid potential layoffs.
Mayor de Blasio, on Friday, billed the agreement as a $450 million savings for the city.
“The City faces the gravest fiscal crisis since 9/11, but we will build on our record of strong financial management by making the tough decisions and sacrifices we need to keep the City running,” de Blasio said.
“This agreement allows us to avoid laying off the teachers who’ve done so much for New York City’s schools and students. But make no mistake, the need for the Federal and State governments to step up and provide us with aid is as pressing as ever.”
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Facing a ferocious union backlash, Mayor Bill de Blasio insisted in an interview Friday that he had no choice but to freeze $900 million in teacher back pay due to coronavirus budget restraints.
He made the comment during his weekly WNYC radio spot with Brian Lehrer when a caller who identified himself as a retired city educator said it “seems like the teachers are always the ones who bail out the city.”
De Blasio stressed that the payments were not canceled outright and would be issued at some indeterminate point.
“Here was something we could do to stave off a crisis and stave off layoffs — to withhold that payment,” he said. “Obviously people should get that money eventually but we can’t afford it right now given that nothing else has come to support us.”
The dispersal was due to be issued this month and stemmed from union negotiations between 2009 and 2011.
“It is the city’s desire to avoid the necessity for layoffs, and to make a retroactive payment at this time would therefore be fiscally irresponsible,” First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan wrote in a letter to Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers.
Arguing that teachers had a right to money they had already earned, Mulgrew angrily blasted the freeze and his union began arbitration proceedings with the city Friday.
De Blasio highlighted that the city has been battered by $9 billion in lost revenue due to the coronavirus shutdown and said that state and federal authorities have failed to replenish municipal coffers.
“We’ve said we’re not in a position to make that payment right now, the union invoked immediately its right to go to arbitration, they do have that legal right and that arbitration is happening immediately,” he said. “The arbitrator will decide what happens with those payments, that is the legally binding right of the arbitrator.”
“We’ve said we’re not in a position to make that payment right now, the union invoked immediately its right to go to arbitration, they do have that legal right and that arbitration is happening immediately,” he said. “The arbitrator will decide what happens with those payments, that is the legally binding right of the arbitrator.”
De Blasio was also quizzed Friday on his rationale for closing schools in COVID-19 hot zones even if they don’t have any coronavirus cases.
Frustrated parents at shuttered private and public schools in these areas have ripped the city’s approach, arguing that the facilities should only be locked down if cases actually materialize.
While he acknowledged minimal COVID-19 cases in city schools, de Blasio said the shutdowns were necessary to guard against wider outbreaks in areas with serious upticks.
“That means shutting down activity across the board,” he said.
De Blasio reported that 2,155 staffers were tested at 44 public schools in hot zones and that only three people tested positive for the coronavirus.
“So we’re not seeing spread in schools, we’re not seeing any unusual number of students or staff anywhere in the city testing positive,” he said.
De Blasio speculated that the closures could end in a matter of weeks if infection rates in impacted areas stabilize.
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