After announcing a tentative contract with the teachers’ union late Monday, the Bloomberg administration signaled yesterday that its next major negotiating goal was to achieve savings on health coverage for 300,000 municipal workers.þþJames F. Hanley, the city’s labor commissioner, said he hoped to open talks soon over health coverage with the umbrella group for the city’s unions, the Municipal Labor Committee.þþMr. Hanley said Randi Weingarten, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, had committed to bargain about health coverage — mayors traditionally negotiate on that subject with the broader labor committee and not with individual unions. Ms. Weingarten is chairwoman of the Municipal Labor Committee.þþ“Randi has said a number of times she has a commitment to try to see if the city can’t provide better benefits more economically,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at the City Hall news conference announcing the teachers’ union deal. “The cost of medical care continues to go up.” The deal announced late Monday gives the teachers a 7.1 percent raise over two years, increasing the base salary for the most senior teachers to just over $100,000.þþThe agreement was unusual because, according to Mr. Hanley, it was the first time that a New York mayor reached a major labor deal so long before the current contract’s expiration. The current contract, which covers 83,000 teachers and about 30,000 other school employees, expires in October of next year.þþMany labor experts were puzzled as to why the two sides would agree to a new contract long before the old one had run out.þþMs. Weingarten had an answer. “What I think the mayor gets from this is stability and certainty,” she said. “And there’s something else — nobody can say a contract fight is an excuse or an impediment for not working together to help the kids.”þþMoreover, by settling with the teachers, Mr. Bloomberg is expected to have an easier time persuading that powerful union to help him lobby Albany to reauthorize direct mayoral control over the city’s schools.þþCharles M. Brecher, research director for the Citizens Budget Commission, a business-backed group, faulted Mr. Bloomberg for giving the teachers what he said was a generous raise without having first nailed down concessions on health costs. þþ“I think it’s a big mistake managerially,” Mr. Brecher said. “Why would they give up something now in the hope that they might get something in return later? Why is he putting all this money on the table and letting them walk away, hoping that they’ll be nice someday in the future?”þþHanley, the labor commissioner, said the city reached the agreement now because the two sides were making progress in their negotiations.þþ“Our plan is to bargain and address health issues with the Municipal Labor Committee,” he said. “Whether there is a teacher settlement in place or not is not really the issue. We’ve settled other contracts over this period of time — and the health insurance issues are separate.”þþIn the past, Mr. Bloomberg has said he would like to persuade the unions to have municipal workers start paying part of the premiums for health coverage. Many union leaders have balked at that idea.þþMs. Weingarten said: “The commitment I made on health is the commitment that is always made on health. As the chair of the M.L.C., we will always meet with the city to engage in ways to find affordable, quality health care. There’s no commitment beyond that.”þþThe teachers’ deal calls for a 2 percent raise in the first year and 5 percent in the second year. The contract needs the approval of the Panel for Education Policy and union members. þþThe teachers’ raise over two years is expected to serve as a pattern for other municipal unions. þþ“Naturally I’d like to do a little better if I possibly could,” said Harry Nespoli, president of the sanitation workers’ union, whose contract expires in March. “The city has a ton of money right now. That’s why now is the time to negotiate.”þþMany teachers applauded the deal, which made their salaries more competitive with those in nearby suburbs. But many principals voiced anger about the teachers’ deal because their union, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, has been without a contract since June 30, 2003.þþIn a letter to union members, the union’s president Jill S. Levy said: “There is nothing I can say to you that will minimize your sense of rejection and disrespect from the chancellor and mayor.” þþ
Source: NY Times
