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Leadership authorized to declare impasse in contract talks, if necessary
Nov 26, 2009 11:38 AM
Delegates approve the resolution giving UFT leadership the authority to seek PERB intervention if contract talks stall.
UFT delegates at their Nov. 18 meeting overwhelmingly approved a resolution that authorizes the union leadership to seek the intervention of the state’s Public Employment Relations Board if necessary.
In the same resolution, the DA also authorized the union leadership to create a mobilization committee to help achieve a fair contract.
UFT President Michael Mulgrew called the authorization an important “tool at our disposal” should the 300-member bargaining committee determine that negotiations have become deadlocked.
“I think it is very important that we trust their judgment, since we have given them that responsibility,” he said.
During the debate on the resolution, Mulgrew stressed that the vote was not to file for impasse at this time.
“It’s a very simple question,” he said. “We are asking for the ability to declare a bargaining impasse if we deem it necessary and to start the mobilization part of the contract campaign.”
Speaking in favor of the resolution, Dolores Lozupone, a chapter leader at PS 185 in Brooklyn, said, “This resolution just gives us the authority, it doesn’t mean that we are declaring impasse.”
The UFT’s most recent contract, a two-year pact, expired on Oct. 31.
In the past 16 years, three of the union’s contracts have gone through the PERB mediation and fact-finding process, most recently in 2005.
In a statement to the press, Mulgrew said, “We have had a number of meetings and have made some progress. But many other issues remain and our contract has expired.”
The union’s negotiating committee began meeting in July to prepare for bargaining, and there have been six negotiating sessions with the Board of Education (still the legal entity with which the UFT negotiates) since Sept. 10.
“I’ve been a member of this union for almost 23 years,” Pat Crispino, chapter leader at HS of Graphic Communication Arts in Manhattan said, “and we’ve been at impasse before. This could work out in our favor. Something has to wake up this mayor, and impasse can do that. Let’s support this resolution now.”
“I rise in favor of this resolution,” said John Capuano, chapter leader at IS 68 in Brooklyn. “We need the ability to use the law in our favor when it can be in our favor, and have an arbitrator come in and work with us, see what the good points are in our favor, and what their points are.”
John Yanno, chapter leader at the Secondary School for Law on the John Jay campus in Brooklyn, said, “I believe the 2003 contract was the result of impasse and fact-finding. I’m not happy with what happened in 2003 ... We have to stop this failed strategy and start fighting for public education and our teachers’ rights.”
