February 19, 2009
4 percent raises, then layoffs
As the recession worsened in December, the Syracuse School Superintendent Daniel Lowengard defended giving teachers a 4 percent pay raise, saying "Our employees didn't create this crisis". Now 128 of those employees face layoffs.
Lowengard isn't alone in agreeing to generous raises amid recession. Most notably, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg--one day after Lehman collapsed--announced 4 percent raises for the first of a series of municipal unions. Now he's calling for layoffs.
Nassau County finds itself in a fix thanks to the county volunteering last April to let an outside arbitrator decide an eight-year (yes, eight) contract for its largest union, the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA). The county's decision to go to binding arbitration was extraordinary, because state law requires binding arbitration only for police and firefighters--not for civilian employees.
Now County Executive Thomas Suozzi has threatened the county's unions that if they don't agree to a 7 percent pay cut, he will lay off 620 employees, including 250 police officers, to close a $150 million budget gap. Having put the squeeze on the unions, Suozzi flew to Florida for a family vacation at Disney World, leaving behind his negotiating team.
In Syracuse, the school board ratified a contract that grants city teachers 4 percent raises in each of the next four years. At the time, Stephanie Miner, who chairs the City Council Education Committee, warned the city could not afford the raises.
But in an interview with a Syracuse TV station WTVH, the school Superintendent Lowengard justified the raises: "Our employees didn't create this crisis. We need to move ahead and educate our students. So we're going to be here for the long haul." Two months later, Lowengard is calling for eliminating 128 jobs, and possibly 66 more if the district can't close a $4.4 million shortfall. "Even 128 is too high. It's cutting too fast, and that's not all going to happen through attrition," Lowengard said. "There are no good cuts in this."How many layoffs might have been averted if the Syracuse school district--and the Syracuse Teachers Association--had not agreed to 4 percent pay raises at the bargaining table?
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