Delegates of the union representing New York City teachers voted overwhelmingly yesterday to authorize a strike, a last-resort tactic meant to increase pressure on city negotiators and to appease angry teachers who feel their union has not been sufficiently forceful in the long-stalled talks over a contract. þþThe vote, by about 1,650 delegates of the United Federation of Teachers, was the first of several steps that must precede a strike, according to the union's rules. In the next step, the vote will be put to all 100,000 of the union's active members, who include teachers, guidance counselors, paraprofessionals and school secretaries.þþThe results will be tallied by early June, and if a majority of members have voted yes, the union leadership is authorized to call a strike any time between June and the end of September. This school year ends on June 28; the new one begins on Sept. 4. Eighteen months have passed since the union's last contract expired, and the city's 80,000 teachers, whose starting salary is $31,910, have not received raises since December 1999. þþÿAt this point, my members have done everything that is legally available to us to do,ÿ said Randi Weingarten, the union's president, in a news conference after the vote, which she said was 1,640 to 8. ÿThis is the level of frustration and demoralization that is in our membership right now.ÿþþMs. Weingarten had a caustic relationship with Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, and she had hoped that a contract would be settled quickly once he left City Hall. þþBut negotiations with his successor, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, have been hindered by the city's budget problems and by Mr. Bloomberg's almost single-minded focus on winning control of the school system. þþSince teacher strikes are illegal under the state's 1967 Taylor Law — teachers risk being jailed and fined two days' pay for every day they walk the picket line — yesterday's vote was primarily a scare tactic. The city's teachers last authorized a strike in June 1993, after going 21 months without a new contract. They reached a deal two months later, just before school opened and the possibility of a strike became real. þþThe teachers' union has struck five times since it was founded in 1960. The most recent teachers' strike occurred over five days in September 1975, after the city laid off 15,000 teachers and other school employees because of the fiscal crisis. Lawmakers and school officials generally think that Ms. Weingarten has no intention of calling a strike, but that she feels obligated to saber rattle to convince her members that she is doing everything possible to get a contract. þþAsked yesterday about the possibility of a strike, Mr. Bloomberg appeared undaunted.þþÿWe are going to continue to negotiate in good faith, as expeditiously as we can, and these things do take time,ÿ he said. ÿI would be surprised if there were a teachers' strike. It is clearly against the law, and we are a nation of laws.ÿþþThe strike authorization comes almost a month after a state fact-finding panel recommended that the teachers get a 15 percent raise over 27 months as part of a contract that would also lengthen the school day by 20 minutes. To help end the city's shortage of certified teachers, the panel also recommended a $56 million recruitment pool that would give new teachers a $3,100 bonus. Altogether, this would increase new teachers' salaries to $40,000.þþThough the panel's recommendations were nonbinding, both City Hall and the union embraced them as the framework for a deal. Mr. Bloomberg has been distracted, however, with details of the state budget and his goal of winning control of the schools, which some officials say could be reached as early as this week. As part of a tentative state budget deal, Gov. George E. Pataki has provided a little more than $200 million to give the city a one-time boost to help pay for the teachers' raises. Ms. Weingarten announced yesterday that she would bestow the union's highest award on Mr. Pataki this weekend at its spring convention.þ
Source: NY Times
