City Hall Rally for City Council Bill, today 12:30, OT/PT Turns down contract - story in Chalkbeat, Plus 2018 contract voting data

About 40% of the 3,000 members of the Occupational and Physical Therapists UFT Chapter voted no, according to Melissa Williams, the chapter’s leader. 

Pay disparities anger occupational and physical therapists

Williams and her colleagues feel that they’re being paid less over time than teachers despite their roles requiring similar education. At the top of the pay scale, she and her colleagues make considerably less than comparably educated teachers, she said. For example, by January a therapist with 10 years of experience and a master’s degree would earn $86,131, according to UFT documents, while a teacher with the same years and degree would earn $103,594. 

According to a survey completed by Williams’ chapter, nearly three-quarters of therapists work second or third jobs after school.

“To look around the table and see that those of us doing similar work are getting paid differently isn’t fair,” she said. “I’m concerned not only for my financial future and my son’s financial future. I’m also concerned for the financial viability for people joining this career.” 

Another sticking point for the therapists was a last-minute addition during contract negotiations of a ninth session to their working day, Williams said. Therapists see two to three students per session. “We barely have time to do eight sessions,” Williams said.....
......Chalkbeat article.

 Thursday, July 13, 2023

Lots to cover today. I had lunch with chapter leader Melissa Williams yesterday to try to understand the details of why the chapter turned down the contract, as they did in 2018. Unity is not happy that she's the chapter leader and I'd bet they will try to return the chapter to Unity hands in next year's election. One way is to attack her and her supporters and blame them, not a lousy contract, for the NO vote, which was pretty substantial - see my recent article - OT/PT, nurses, audiologists vote NO. More info with full Chalkbeat article below. 

The news for retirees - show up at city hall today -- numbers count

Rally today - 9/11 PARENTS & FAMILIES OF FIREFIGHTERS AND WTC VICTIMS CALL ON CITY HALL TO STOP DISCRIMINATING AGAINST NYC SENIOR CITIZEN RETIREES!

WHAT: Rally/Press Conference at City Hall, NYC

WHEN: Thursday, July 13, 2023

TIME: 12:30 PM

WHY: Rally against Mayor Eric Adams’ forcing NYC senior citizen retirees into an unwanted and substandard “Medicare Advantage Program.”

911 Parents & Families of Firefighters and WTC Victims announces our categorical opposition to Mayor Eric Adams’ efforts to remove traditional Medicare,  plus the NYC supplemental coverage, from 250,000 retired NYC public servants-against their wishes! This includes NYPD, FDNY, EMS, and numerous other official NYC Agencies and Departments.

Many of these uniformed and civilian retirees have devoted their entire working lives to The City of New York! Many of these retirees lost their own uniformed and civilian children and loved ones on 911! Why are our rights being robbed from us upon retirement?

This Mayor cannot be permitted to unilaterally revoke a 57-year precedent that was guaranteed to all New York City’s  Medicare eligible employees upon retirement!

We fully endorse the leader- ship of Ms. Marianne Pizzitola, President of the NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees. Her organization is championing The fight to restore the rights of  New York City senior citizen employees to retain traditional Medicare and NYC supplementary coverage.  Stop this discrimination against NYC senior citizen retirees!

A rally led by Ms. Pizzitola will be held by The New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees on Thursday, July 13, 12:30PM, at City Hall, NYC. All concerned citizens are urged to attend and speak out for the rights of senior citizens in this City!

911 Parents and Families of Firefighters and WTC Victims asks every member of the City Council to stand up and be counted and sign on to the bill that will support our efforts for justice! You are either with us or against us!

We ask Senator Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand as well as every member of Congress who is supposed to represent the senior citizens of New York, to stand with us in this effort for equal treatment for NYC retirees!

Marianne Pizzitola

President

NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees

And

FDNY EMS Retirees Association

We still need to see a city council bill passed to protect us and there is a rally today for that purpose.We can expect a few working UFT members to be there in support.

We added a City Council rep - Eric Bottcher who was at Leonie's Skinny Award for Jamaal Bowman, along with Keith Powers, my city council rep in the city who has not signed on -- I called his office for a meeting and still waiting for a return call.

It is not just the city Medicare for retirees at risk -- but all of Medicare which is under assault from both parties -- remember, the UFT/Unity is aligned with the corp Dems who want to privatize. Thus, I also signed up for a July 25th Medicare rally in Washington at the White House.

NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees (for Benefit Preservation)

If you are committed to going to Washington DC for the day, Tuesday, July 25th, please sign up to Amtrack there with us. NO CANCELLING! You must sign up by WEDNESDAY JULY 12th! Close of business.

We meet at Penn Station at 645 am and return at 10 pm that night.

We are also looking for a few people with Medicare Advantage horror stories to join us, if that is you, please send us an email.

REMEMBER, WE ARE GOING WITH BE A HERO FOUNDATION IN THIS JOINT EFFORT.

https://act.beaherofund.com/.../medicare_birthday.../

CLICK ABOVE LINK TO REGISTER

https://youtu.be/9fMWk805ZEg

Deadline to sign up has passed. But hear this:

"Hospitals and insurance companies have also bought out many independent physicians’ practices. Optum, an arm of the publicly traded UnitedHealth Group, which also owns one of the nation’s largest insurers, employs roughly 70,000 physicians. Studies have shown that these types of concentrated ownership of doctors in a given market are also associated with higher prices."

The trend is for total corp control of our healthcare and how pissed do we need to be that our own union is a handmaiden?

I will be at the rally at City Hall today. But if we fall into thinking that this is the definition of activism we are making a mistake. The motto of Ed Notes for 25 years has been Educate, Organize, Mobilize -- in that order. In order to do each step, the preceding step is important. 

Thus calling your city council on our issue is helped by infusing the kind of info below. Costs are rising and we are not at fault. Yet our own union falls into that propaganda mode. Yesterday I saw what seemed like a Unity hack on FB defending the non-pension aspect of the new contract because the city won't be able to pay because we live longer, etc etc. I surmised that the plan to move us to MedAdv may be their solution to cutting pensions -- death panels. 

We all need to equip ourselves with the ammunition even to convince our own colleagues. My liberal friends often say we can't afford a single payer system because they have been propagandized. The high costs are no accident. And I have seen a whole batch of physicians retire this year. One said I love my patients and hate my job.

We need to share info that points to the real threat to everyone's healthcare. Profit making companies only see the short time view --- increase profits. They see Medicare and the healthcare system as a bottomless pit.

We need laws to counter the ability of private equity and hospitals to create monopolies - we ultimately pay. And how sad that we have to start with our union leadership and the members who only get their take. 

Share this one from Forbes: Medicare Advantage Retiree Plans Save Employers Money But Create Issues For Retirees

On contract news -- 

Details have been short. Look at the charts below and the current math needs work. There are about 60K teachers and over 90k voted - the difference is the functionals. So if 75% voted yes that would be 45K yes and 15K NO? Check my math and I'd bet a lot of people who voted YES did so because they didn't believe in the NO option. For giggles, say another 5K might have voted NO if they had full info on the contract. My guess is that in schools where there were strong voices opposed, the school as a whole went NO. Where Unity had someone to sell the contract they probably won that school. 

There's a lot of stuff we don't know yet. Did every school vote? I asked for that info at the count and didn't get an answer - I should have.
Here is some data from the 2018 election. When (if) we get it from the UFT we can do some comparisons. You'll not a drop in YES votes -- and my math may be bad on the NO votes since only

 

 

OT/PT, nurses, audiologists vote NO - in the meantime, the OT/PT chapter voted the contract down by a significant margin. I published the insulting letter UFT Middle School VP Rich Mantel sent to the chapter whose leader is Melissa Williams. 

the Chalkbeat article. 

NYC teachers get raises. Physical and occupational therapists still wait.

By  Eliana Perozo

Jul 12, 2023, 8:43pm EDT

 

Starting salaries for New York City teachers will increase to $72,350 by 2026 under the United Teachers Federation’s newly ratified contract.

That’s 18.5% more than the current starting salary of $61,070.

But while teachers and other members of their union approved the contract this week, school-based occupational and physical therapists are holding out for their own deal. 

Because the therapists voted against the contract, they will not receive pay increases, signing bonuses, or other increased benefits. Instead, they will continue working under the terms of the 2018 contract until their bargaining unit can reach a new deal with the city.

UFT officials said they planned to discuss next steps with the chapter’s members.

The teachers’ five-year contract, which is retroactive to 2022, includes 3% wage increases for the first three years, followed by a 3.25% increase in the fourth year, and 3.5% in the fifth year. In addition, teachers will get one-time signing bonuses of $3,000 each and annual bonuses of $400 in 2024, $700 in 2025, and $1,000 in 2026. 

The union represents 115,000 full-time and 5,000 part-time education department employees, including paraprofessionals, school secretaries, and social workers. Three-quarters of them voted on the new contract, according to the union. 

Of the union members who voted this week, 75% approved the contract, according to the American Arbitration Association, but many educators expressed concern that the increases don’t keep pace with the rising cost of living. This approval rate was lower than the 87% yes vote for the last contract in 2018.

About 40% of the 3,000 members of the Occupational and Physical Therapists UFT Chapter voted no, according to Melissa Williams, the chapter’s leader. 

Pay disparities anger occupational and physical therapists

Williams and her colleagues feel that they’re being paid less over time than teachers despite their roles requiring similar education. At the top of the pay scale, she and her colleagues make considerably less than comparably educated teachers, she said. For example, by January a therapist with 10 years of experience and a master’s degree would earn $86,131, according to UFT documents, while a teacher with the same years and degree would earn $103,594. 

According to a survey completed by Williams’ chapter, nearly three-quarters of therapists work second or third jobs after school.

“To look around the table and see that those of us doing similar work are getting paid differently isn’t fair,” she said. “I’m concerned not only for my financial future and my son’s financial future. I’m also concerned for the financial viability for people joining this career.” 

Another sticking point for the therapists was a last-minute addition during contract negotiations of a ninth session to their working day, Williams said. Therapists see two to three students per session. “We barely have time to do eight sessions,” Williams said.

Teachers also have contract concerns

Many members of the Movement of Rank and File Educators, a social justice caucus within UFT known as MORE, also voiced disappointment with the contract.

“I think people voted yes because we’re in really dire financial times, and they were afraid this administration, similar to [former Mayor Michael] Bloomberg, would make us wait another nine years to bargain again,” said Brooklyn middle school teacher and MORE member Olivia Swisher. 

Under Bloomberg, teachers worked four years under an expired contract until winning a settlement in 2013. Earlier, principals and supervisors also worked for nearly four years under an expired contract until 2003. 

With nine days to vote, Swisher felt that the contract was rushed. UFT required bargaining committee leaders to sign a non-disclosure agreement barring them from discussing bargaining conversations, she said. 

Under the new contract, the maximum salary for teachers will rise to $151,271 by 2026. That means it will take teachers eight years to make over $100,000, instead of the current 15 years. 

The national average teacher salary for the 2022-23 school year was $68,469 — a 2.6% increase from the previous year, according to the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union. Adjusted for inflation, however, teachers, on average, earned $3,644 less than they did a decade ago, the national union said. 

The UFT deal also creates a virtual learning program. According to the contract, schools interested in participating in the virtual program must submit a proposal. A quarter of high schools will be allowed to participate in the first year, phasing in all schools after four years. 

Mayor Eric Adams and Chancellor David Banks said the goal is to offer evening and weekend classes to help students who cannot attend regular school hours because of full-time jobs. 

Some teachers, however, expressed reservations. 

“It’s a de-professionalization of our work,” Swisher said. “We are divesting from systems that have been shown to work, like teachers in schools, and investing in something we already know doesn’t work, virtual learning. It’s not helping our students, it’s hurting them.”

The contract is retroactive to Sept. 14, 2022, and runs through Nov. 28, 2027, city officials said. The wage increases follow a February agreement with District Council 37, which provided raises for other school employees such as cafeteria workers, parent coordinators, and crossing guards. 

“The new agreement addresses the major changes sought by the union’s 500-member negotiating team. The contract increases pay, increases educators’ control over their workday, and decreases the noneducational, irrelevant paperwork demands,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew wrote in a statement.

Eliana Perozo is a reporting intern at Chalkbeat New York. You can reach her at eperozo@chalkbeat.org.

 More from Marianne:

New York City Retirees Rally Outside City Hall for Intro 1099 by CM Barron

&

Celebrate the Court Granting an Injunction

New York, NY, July 13, 2023 — Last week the New York County Supreme Court issued a preliminary injunction stopping the City from forcing a quarter-million elderly and disabled retirees off of their longstanding Medicare insurance and onto an inferior type of insurance called “Medicare Advantage.” This is temporary.

Councilman Barron knew retirees needed protection as well, and introduced a bill, Intro 1099, that would require the City to offer a Medigap plan – the same kind of policy they have had for almost 60 years.  The City by law, is required to pay for health coverage to a specific level, and since Medigap plans only cover 20% of bills, the cost is minimal to the City and that cost is codified in statute.

Marianne Pizzitola, President of the New York City Organization of Public Service Retirees, states, “The Unions are sending emails to the Council telling them not to sign Intro 1099, after threatening them with pulling back endorsements and donations if they do.   The Municipal Labor Committee refuses to admit they misused the Health Insurance Stabilization Fund that pays the premium for THEM. (it does not pay for Medicare Retirees’ health premiums). This is why they are selling Retirees off like cattle, gaslighting everyone that they are giving us a better plan, when it is inferior, solely to enrich themselves.  They have lost their moral compass and forever damaging the labor movement.” 

The Unions repeatedly tell the Council Intro 1099 is illegal and violates their collective bargaining.  Marianne further stated, “The Council legislated Admin Code 12-126 after the Taylor and NYC Collective Bargaining became law, and it was amended dozens of times by the council.  If it was illegal at any time, they never, in almost 60 years challenged it in court.   Pass Intro 1099, and let them take it to a Judge.  But if you want to hear the Municipal Labor Committee and Labor Chair of the Tri-Partite Committee, Alan Klinger say the Intro is not illegal by itself but would create ‘financial pressure’ on the City not to give the active workers money if they have to pay for retirees,  just listen to our video.”  “Stop the lies, protect retired labor, and tell the unions to use the one power they have, collective bargaining, to negotiate their way out of the hole THEY created,” she said. (see the 4:30 mark) https://youtu.be/TqIH7YZIdtA?t=270

 Here is PSC James Davis challenging the same lawyer’s interpretation, https://youtu.be/TqIH7YZIdtA?t=226

And then abstains from voting to come out against Intro 1099 based on the misguided interpretation.

The Retirees plan to Rally outside City Hall at 12:30 pm on Broadway by Park Place, across from the Woolworth Bldg.  CM Barron will be there, and a few CM who recently signed onto the legislation. 

Media Contact: Marianne Pizzitola Marianne@nycretirees.org

 

UFT Contract: OT/PTs Defend Turning Down Contract

Norm, if you have any advice to give the OTPT chapter, please feel free. I have a feeling you are right and the union will just punish them for voting the contract down. Mulgrew apparently was very proud that he got us a $500.00 increase for longevity! We have three steps…10 years, 15 and 22 years. Pathetic.... Retired OT

The union’s announcement that the “UFT members vote overwhelmingly to ratify the DOE-UFT contract” with absolutely no mention of us was not only insulting but also dishonest.  ... OT who voted NO.

The retiree is referring to my comments in The WAVE that the UFT leadership would get even with them for turning down the contract.

Some people have been in touch with me and I suggested that if some OT/PTs want to sit down and talk over options - and there may be few. Here are some comments being sent to Ed Notes. (Leave your own and I will publish them anon if you want - or email me at gmail.com.

I was a DOE Occupational Therapist for 22 years and recently retired. I read your article in the WAVE this week and thought I would write in case you are not aware of what is going on with the OTPT chapter. I support my fellow therapists in their disappointment with the contract and for taking a stand finally and voting it down. 

OT and PT have notoriously been underpaid and ignored by both the DOE and UFT for years. We used to be required to work summers without additional pay up until 2008, or whenever that contract was approved. Thanks to Randi Weingarten, she somehow got us summers off back then by nothing short of a miracle.

I just want to clarify one of the more recent bones of contention regarding NPI numbers. An NPI number is what NY state requires therapists to get in order to bill for Early Intervention services. 

Most OT and PT’s work two jobs, as did I, because our salary is so far below speech and teachers. Most of us had NPI numbers because of our second job in early intervention. It was not a requirement for our work in the DOE as therapists. 

About 3 years ago the DOE sent in Medicaid doctors because they were able to bill Medicaid for our services. At that time, speech was also required to meet with the doctors. We were told in no uncertain terms that we had to hand over our NPI numbers to the DOE so they could bill. 

We turned to the union and were told, by Carmen Alvarez, that we had no choice and had to turn over our numbers. Speech therapists, on the other hand, were told NOT to hand over their numbers by their union rep. 

We thought that was strange at the time, but most therapists were unaware of what was going on. About a year later, we learned that each speech therapist was given a yearly $5,000 raise for their NPI numbers. They were also granted the ability to work overtime to complete their work, while we were told that we were never to work outside the work hours. 

It’s been an ongoing battle with the union as to why were were required to turn over the one bargaining chip we had.... our NPI numbers without receiving a dime. Yet, speech therapists were given another $5,000 yearly outside of a contract. That further increased the disparity in our pay. The union claims that OT and PT receive more than their counterparts in city hospitals, which is not true. They use this to argue why they can’t get us more money, yet if we point out that social workers are the highest paid in the DOE, and their counterparts working in other city facilities are paid half of what they get paid in the DOE, we get silence. They can’t justify the reasoning.

Thanks

This is another post by a DOE occupational therapist :

A lot of DOE employees don’t know that the OT/PT chapter voted down their contract... all that was publicized was that 87% of the union voted yes and the contract was ratified. But not ours and for valid reasons. Since we are such a small chapter, we often get no mention, and the union doesn’t want to draw any attention to this one small, frustrated, and unhappy chapter. But here’s some background if anyone’s interested to understand our point of view...

By the end of our pay scale, we are paid almost 30k less than speech therapists (speech has the most similar daily workload to OT/PTs so it’s interesting to compare ourselves to them); 

-our masters degrees are undervalued and paid literally thousands of dollars less than others’ (teachers, speech, etc.), and those of us with doctorates get absolutely nothing for that; 

-we get an unpaid 30 minute lunch; because of our unpaid lunch we don’t accumulate enough hours and are not guaranteed the right to an FMLA in the case of an emergency unless we’ve worked summers; 

-if we choose to work summers we get paid several percentage points less than everyone else (I think we’re 13% while everyone else is 16 or 17%); if there’s an emergency we can borrow 10 days while others can borrow 20; 

-we were required to hand over our NPI numbers so the DOE can use our notes to bill Medicaid with no compensation while speech therapists are given an extra $5000 a year for it; 

-we get no prep time and have 30 minutes a day to complete our documentation (8 daily notes, progress reports, IEPs, etc.)... speech has the option of completing paperwork at home and being paid for it, not us; speech also has the opportunity to take on an extra session during the day, if the school needs, and be paid for it, not us; 

So when we’re told that we’re so lucky that we don’t have to attend parent teacher nights, we’d like to clarify.... we would HAPPILY attend those evenings if we were compensated equally. The union’s announcement that the “UFT members vote overwhelmingly to ratify the DOE-UFT contract” with absolutely no mention of us was not only insulting but also dishonest. We love, respect, and support our colleagues: speech, counselors, teachers, paras... everyone. I am amazed and inspired by many of the people I’ve had the opportunity to work with. But we are very frustrated that the OT/PT chapter is consistently under-represented and are fighting for parity with our colleagues.