After Demanding a Second Vote, UFT President Michael Mulgrew Gets The OT-PT Contract Ratified

Mike Mulgrew

Mike Mulgrew, President of the UFT, did not like the fact that in a vote on a tentative new contract between the City of New York and the bargaining unit which includes Occupational and physical therapists as well as other professional groupings, this unit voted no. Nurses and audiologists, also in the unit, voted yes.

What did Mulgrew do?  Rather than go back to the negotiating table, he demanded that the unit voting no had a revote. No other members had to vote again. 

Guess what? Mike got the votes he needed the second time around to ratify the new contract he wanted.

Gosh, I wonder how that happened? 

This is the UFT.

 Betsy Combier

betsy@advocatz.com

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NYC teachers union chapter ratifies contract after backlash over “undemocratic” revote

by Cayla Bamberger, NY Daily News, August 31, 2023

A chapter of school therapists that was directed to revote on a tentative contract agreement has approved the deal amid criticism the process was anti-democratic.

The contract between the United Federation of Teachers and the city was ratified by 89% of the more than 2,000 occupational and physical therapists who cast ballots, according to the tally of the revote by the independent American Arbitration Association.

“I want to thank the [occupational and physical therapists] who participated in the union meetings this summer to discuss your contract,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in an email Wednesday to members. “The challenge we faced helped build a stronger union.”

Earlier this summer, the bargaining unit that included occupational and physical therapists as well as other professional groupings turned down the agreement. More than two-thirds of therapists who cast ballots rejected the deal, with many citing pay concerns. Others in the unit, including nurses and audiologists, voted it through, the initial tally showed.

Rather than go back to the negotiating table, the UFT split the therapists from the rest of their bargaining unit and directed them to revote. No other members had to vote again.

Mulgrew in announcing the revote cited an “outpouring of opinion” on all sides of the arguments. The UFT received just under 1,500 emails from members in the bargaining unit asking for a revote, according to a spokeswoman for the union.

But the directive was met with swift backlash from chapter leadership, prompting the resignation of three chapter executive board members, including chapter leader Melissa Williams.

Ballots were mailed on Tuesday, Aug. 8, and due on Tuesday, according to the UFT. They were counted on Wednesday.

Roughly 450 more ballots were returned in the second vote than during the initial round, according to figures reviewed by The News. The number of votes against the deal dwindled the second time around from 1,074 to 229, a memo from the UFT showed Thursday.

The initial vote to reject the contract was the second time in a row that therapists turned down the first offer from the city. In 2018, union reps went back into negotiations with city labor officials — a step that many therapists who voted no expected to happen again.

Vice chair of physical therapists Aideen Kwan Dela Cruz told The News she was relieved to no longer be labeled as a “troublemaker,” but saddened to miss out on pay parity and respect.

“I understand why people ratified this contract as they do not see how they can change the union leadership’s stance on not supporting our chapter’s demands,” she said. “It is disheartening that we pay union dues to a union who sides with the employer and not the paying members.”

The new contract boosts pay 17.58% to 20.42% compounded over the five years of the agreement according to the UFT. It dates back retroactively to last September, and comes with retroactive payments and a $3,000 ratification bonus.

By the end of the contract, a therapist with a master’s degree and a decade of experience would max out at a $94,804 annual salary, or approximately $20,000 less per year than a teacher with the same educational attainment and longevity, according to an analysis of salary schedules.

An internal survey by the UFT chapter showed more than two-thirds of members currently have a “side-gig,” including part-time jobs and contract work, to supplement their work as full-time school therapists.

Therapists were told they could voluntarily work an extra session at 12.5% of their daily rate to earn more money. But the option was largely unpopular as it would entail working longer hours, only to make less than similarly educated teachers.

Mulgrew in the Wednesday email to school therapists touted that the deal “increases control over how you spend your workday.”

Mimi Greenberg, an occupational therapist on the contract negotiation committee, said the chapter only found out about the option once it was already in the tentative agreement with the city.

Critics of the deal also argue that therapists’ necessary degrees and certifications make for some of the biggest student loan burdens in the city’s public school system.

“It is a true shame that union share tactics, and whatever else drove the vote, won out over personal integrity and democracy,” said Greenberg. “I consider this a very sad experience.”