The Streets Were Paved with Gold (54 page)

Increase holiday and night differential pay, which is tied to base pay.
Detectives, for instance, will receive several hundred dollars more each year—totaling about $1,200 annually.

Agree to binding arbitration to determine whether the city would continue to owe its workers the one-year wage deferrals of 1975
, totaling between $180 and $200 million. (In July 1978, the arbitrators ruled in the workers’ favor, declaring the city owed this money to its employees.)

Include COLA I payments in the wage rate in the second year.

Agree to raise COLA I payments from an average of $395 to $441.
Some employees whose contracts expired at different times, namely, teachers, would receive their $441 in the second year.

Continue to pay increments for teachers, Board of Higher Education professors and uniformed employees.
Most uniformed employees receive increments for just the first three years on the job. After the first year, for instance, cops, firemen and corrections officers receive pay increments of $2,443, in addition to their regular wage hike and cost-of-living adjustments. In year two, they receive $675 more; in year three, an additional $671. Sanitation men get about 10 percent less. Teachers receive about $1,000 annually in pay increments over their first eight years. All increments also become part of the base pay, being counted for future wage hikes, overtime and pensions.

Agree to grant pensions to all part-timers who work for the Board of Education.
These 10,000 paraprofessionals were now to be paid on an annual rather than hourly basis.

Restore the three increments (about $1,650) teachers did not receive in 1977 and 1978 because of the “fiscal crisis.”

Cede to the teachers’ union the right to grant larger than 8 percent raises to those with seniority, and smaller raises to junior teachers.
This deed was done when the Koch administration agreed that once they decided how big the pie would be—$757 million of city funds for raises over the two years of the contract—the unions, not the city government, could decide how to slice their share. Faced with an internal union challenge, UFT President Shanker, with the approval of the Board of Education, decided to gift larger slices of the pie to more numerous senior teachers. In fiscal 1979, the increments for seventh-year teachers were increased by $250 (to
$1,250) and eighth-year teachers were given $1,180 extra (a total of $2,180); in fiscal 1980, seventh-year teachers will receive an additional $250 and those in their eighth year an extra $1,250 (or $2,250 in increments). Also, over the two years of the contract, teachers with ten to fifteen years on the job will receive an additional $500 bonus, bringing their longevity pay to $2,000. Those with more than fifteen years’ service will receive an extra $1,000 over the two years. Instead of a flat 8 percent raise, Shanker chose to increase increments and longevity pay by an amount greater than 8 percent. However, those teachers with five years or less of service will not share in these raises. Over the two years they will receive their COLA I payments ($777), their cost-of-living bonus ($1,500), their four increments ($2,000) and their three back increments ($1,650). It’s not peanuts, but it’s less than most teachers will get. “It was a brilliant move by Shanker,” observed Michael Rosenbaum, a city negotiator who used to work for D.C. 37. “All of the younger teachers were laid off. Few have been hired. Only about 10 percent of the teachers will not benefit, I would guess.” He guessed about right. Shanker’s union approved the pact by a vote of 44,858 to 4,485.