De Blasio deal with UFT gives teachers 10% pay hike over 7 years

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks to members of the United Federation of Teachers during the UFT spring conference held at the New York Hilton hotel in Manhattan on Saturday, April 26, 2014. Photo Credit: Julie Larsen Maher © Wildlife Conservation Society

The United Federation of Teachers would receive a 10 percent pay hike over seven years under a tentative contract agreement unveiled Thursday with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration.

They would also receive retroactive raises of 4 percent for 2009 and 2010, to be provided in increments from 2015 to 2020.

The UFT represents 75,000 teachers and tens of thousands of other school employees, accounting for one of the biggest chunks of the city’s 300,000-strong workforce, most of which is unionized. The teachers have been without a contract since 2009.

The contract, which must be approved by the union’s full membership, would include a measure to retain high-performing teachers — for example, establishing a “career ladder” with three new positions and additional compensation of between $7,000 and $20,000 per year. The contract also would include a measure to remove poorly performing teachers.

It would include health insurance cost savings for the city that the administration said would free up more than $1 billion over the length of the contract.

The proposed nine-year agreement begins retroactively on Nov. 1, 2009 and expires on Oct. 31, 2018.

Under pattern bargaining, the settlement will likely set the tone for agreements the city will seek for rest of its more than 150 open labor contracts — including those for police officers, firefighters and sanitation workers.

“This is considered the pattern for everyone else,” said E.J. McMahon of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a fiscally conservative watchdog group.

“It involves health care issues that affect all city workers,” said Arthur Cheliotes of the New York City Municipal Labor Committee on Thursday said his organization, an umbrella group of representatives of public sector unions that negotiates health insurance and other benefits on behalf of the municipal workforce. His group planned to meet Friday on the latest developments.

If the deal is completed and ratified by UFT members, it would be de Blasio’s first major contract settlement.