Principals’ Union To Vote on Next Step In Its 27-Month Battle for a Contract
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With the threat of a teachers’ strike looming, the union representing city principals has scheduled an emergency meeting to vote on a “course of action” regarding its own contract dispute with the city.
The union, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, is entering its 27th month without a contract. The leadership has been unable to reach an agreement with the Bloomberg administration and, on Wednesday, plans to pass a resolution outlining how it will proceed.
“The pulse of my membership is beating very hard,” the union president, Jill Levy, told The New York Sun. “They are working extremely hard and extremely long hours. They’re fed up, and they don’t feel appreciated by the department.”
Last week, the United Federation of Teachers voted in a special meeting attended by more than 2,000 union delegates to give the mayor an October deadline to settle on a contract. The union, which represents the city’s 83,000 teachers, passed a resolution either to take a strike authorization vote or endorse Mr. Bloomberg’s Democratic challenger in the mayoral race, Fernando Ferrer, if that deadline is not met.
Ms. Levy said she is not suggesting that her membership go on strike, but said it is likely the topic will be raised at the executive board’s closed-door meeting at the union headquarters in downtown Brooklyn on Wednesday.
If the city uses the recommendations of a state arbitration panel to settle the UFT contract, senior teachers would make about the same as starting principals, roughly $85,000, Ms. Levy said. She said teachers need more of a salary incentive to climb the education ranks.
The union will also vote on how to support the teachers if they don’t get their contract and what to do if they walk off the job. Under state law, it is illegal for principals or teachers to go on strike.
The union’s more than 5,500 members include about 1,400 principals, 3,000 assistant principals, 1,000 education administrators, and 450 daycare directors.
“If it’s an out and out strike and there are picket lines outside schools, some of our members are not going to want to cross those lines,” Ms. Levy said about the possibility of a teachers’ strike.