The UFT-DOE contract expires in November 2027, and we’re already preparing for bargaining with the city Department of Education by convening our 750-member UFT Contract Negotiating Committee, conducting an all-member survey and a fall teach-in, and preparing for the fight ahead. The following Q&A addresses some commonly asked questions about contract negotiations.
What are the steps to reaching a new contract?
We put together a UFT Contract Negotiating Committee of rank-and-file members who will bargain with the city and the DOE. There are 750 members on the committee representing all titles and divisions.
- All UFT members are surveyed about what they want to see in the next contract.
- The 750-member Negotiating Committee makes a series of demands based on the results of a survey sent out to the full UFT membership.
- The city and the DOE then respond to those demands and submit their own demands.
- Bargaining begins and will continue until they reach a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on all topics on the table.
- The Negotiating Committee meets to review the MOA and votes to endorse and send to the UFT Executive Board, which can vote to send it to the UFT Delegate Assembly.
- The MOA is taken to the Delegate Assembly, which votes on whether to send it to the membership for a ratification vote.
- If a majority of the members vote to approve the MOA, the new contract is ratified.
How does the UFT develop its demands?
The union sends a contract survey to every DOE-employed UFT member as well as members of two of the UFT’s city chapters. The results of the survey are shared with the Negotiating Committee. The committee is then broken down into subcommittees that formulate demands specific to their functional chapter, division or topic and present them to the city and DOE.
What can we negotiate?
In municipal contract negotiations there are issues that can be brought up at the bargaining table and there are topics that are negotiated in other ways.
The UFT may negotiate on pay, working conditions, components of evaluation and observation, contract enforcement, career-ladder positions and the configuration of the workday, to name a few.
The topics below are not bargained for in our contract negotiations, but are advocated for in other ways:
- The New York State pension system (set by state law)
- Tenure (set by state law)
- The student discipline code (a DOE prerogative)
- School funding formula
- Health care benefits: Health benefits for UFT members are not part of the DOE-UFT contract negotiations. Instead, the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC), the umbrella group of more than 100 municipal labor unions including the UFT, negotiates with the city on the health care benefits for all city employees, as was done with the adoption of the NYCE PPO plan last year.
What is meant by “pattern bargaining” and how does it work?
New York City has a long practice of selecting one union to bargain with first. That first contract sets a wage pattern. This pattern acts as a benchmark that the city tries to match in cost for all other unions in that round of bargaining.
Once the initial bargaining pattern is established, it becomes an enormous challenge to get the city to grant significantly better terms to another union. We know this system is broken. Pattern bargaining continues to fail our lowest-paid city employees, as demonstrated in our current RESPECT campaign and legislation. That’s why we’ve been fighting and will continue to fight the city’s overreliance on this practice.
What is strategic transparency and how does the UFT use it?
Strategic transparency is the purposeful practice of sharing goals, plans and union demands thoughtfully to manage the timing and confidentiality needed while at the table with the city and DOE. It is important to protect our bargaining position, and therefore we must make sure we are presenting our key priorities on our own terms to ensure maximum impact during negotiations.
Although overall findings of our member survey are distributed to the Negotiating Committee, detailed analysis is kept strictly internal so city negotiators cannot leverage our data against us.
One of the most important roles of members on the Negotiating Committee is to keep membership informed on how negotiations are going, and the UFT will be giving updates on our progress. UFT Contract Negotiating Committee members can’t openly discuss the content of specific demands because of strategic transparency. However, in their committee meetings, all Negotiating Committee members can pass on ideas and suggestions from their colleagues to help shape union strategies and priorities.
What does a bargaining session look like?
Nearly all 750 members of the UFT Contract Negotiating Committee, led by UFT President Michael Mulgrew and the union’s chief negotiator, Carl Cambria, attend an initial negotiation session. Officials from the city Office of Labor Relations and the Office of Management and Budget, along with DOE officials, are present for the other side.
Later, smaller subcommittees meet with the DOE and the city to present and discuss their specific demands.
What is the role of the 750-member UFT Contract Negotiating Committee?
The large committee — made up mostly of rank-and-file members — drives negotiations. Its participation is invaluable because rank-and-file members understand firsthand what it is like to deal with inflexible supervisors, unreasonable paperwork, micromanagement and all of the other challenges UFT members face in schools. These members sit across the table from the city and the DOE and share their experiences and opinions with them. They explain the rationale behind our demands directly to the other side.
The sheer number of rank-and-file members involved also can have an impact on city negotiators by showing the union’s strength and unity. It is a signal that hundreds of union members are invested in a process that demands serious attention.
What role does the DOE play in contract negotiations?
The DOE is mostly concerned with educational issues and special initiatives and programs embraced by the chancellor. The DOE generally does not get involved in negotiating financial issues, unless they concern paying educators more in return for taking on new duties. Otherwise, monetary items are primarily the concern of the mayor, his budget director and his labor negotiators, who try to adhere to the established bargaining pattern.
How can other rank-and-file members get involved?
Rank-and-file members are critical to our contract fight. The first and most important way we can demonstrate the union’s strength and unity is by completing the all-member survey in November. This is your chance to say what you want to see in our next contract, and every response counts.
We will be organizing days of action on the school level and citywide throughout the campaign. From wearing union blue to signing a petition, leafleting in your community or attending a rally, there will be plenty of actions we may need to take to put pressure on the city in order to get our demands met. The more we turn up and turn out for these actions, the better our contract will be. Contracts aren’t won at the bargaining table. They are won on at our schools and worksites across the city.
Speak to your chapter leader about joining your school’s Contract Action Team later this year. These teams will help organize and promote future school-based actions and activities in support of negotiations and will keep members informed about where the union is in the bargaining process.