City Hall and Teachers' Union Relieved To Have Contract

It was all smiles at City Hall when Mayor Bloomberg announced that the city had finally reached a labor agreement with the United Federation of Teachers, after three years of stalled contract talks. In the four year deal, teachers get a 15% raise (plus teachers in difficult schools can get a $10,000 bonus) but will have to work more hours, may not be able to transfer to different schools based on seniority, and lose some other privileges. The deal is retroactive from 2003, so teachers may be getting some bonuses. The NY Times had described the deal as a draw for both the city and the teacher's union, while mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer semi-snarked, "Well, thank goodness for election years." (Gothamist imagines the Mayor's campaign as wanting to snark back, "Well, you didn't even go to public schools in the city, so hush.") The Mayor said the plan was "good for the city's 1.1 million school children" - NYC is the largest public school system in the country - but some teachers told the Daily News the deal was terrible: "Soon we'll be working overnight and on weekends. It's not about the three days or 10 minutes, it's about giving up the rights our past teachers worked for."