December 7, 2014
By Marc Bussanich
New York, NY—Just before the president of the principals union, Ernest Logan, introduced Mayor Bill de Blasio to speak to the union’s 47th annual conference, he informed his members that they have a new contract with the City, prompting loud applause.
The Council of School Supervisors & Principals, Local One of the American Federation of School Administrators, reached a nine-year contract with the city that calls for an average of two percent of raises each over for a total average of 18 percent.
“This is a long overdue achievement. Over 6,000 CSA employees have been working since 2010 without a contract. That was wrong, that was unacceptable and that ends now. This is a good contract, it is a fair contract,” said the Mayor. “It will make sure every CSA employee gets the same benefits as other employees who have signed the previous contract under the pattern. It means given the hard work you do, you’ll get fair pay, you’ll get what you deserve and the work you’re doing at the same time we’ll protect the city’s long-term fiscal health. That is the balance we all believe in and we have achieved it with this contract.”
CSA members greeted the news loudly. Back in September Mr. Logan invited reporters to the union’s offices to explain why his union and the city hadn’t been able to reach a new contract up to that point. He said then that a major stumbling block to a new agreement was that the city was refusing to pay about 1,900 teachers formerly represented by the United Federation of Teachers who were promoted to Assistant Principals and Principals starting in 2009 because they joined a new bargaining unit when they became CSA members.
But the Mayor announced at the conference on Saturday afternoon that the city and union overcame that stumbling block.
“I’ll add this [contract] includes CSA members promoted to supervisory positions since 2009. Folks who have joined CSA ranks since 2009 will receive full-restructured payments the cost of which will be shared between the city and CSA in a creative way. And that’s what we needed to do, find a way to work together to come up with what people needed and do so in a way that worked for the long term. And we’ve done it,” said de Blasio.
In the accompanying video, Mr. Logan said there’s an extension of 45 days to the new contract to ensure that those CSA members promoted since 2009 are all covered by the new contract.
“Those people called continuously employed [teachers who worked in the classroom before being promoted as an administrator] will receive their money. What we’ve been able to do is make sure that everyone who has ever promoted within, all of our retirees are covered and even people who were promoted out of our unit into other positions in the DOE, what some people might call management, are covered because we believe it was a moral issue. They earned that money, they should get that money,” said Logan.
@marcbuss marc@laborpress.org
