Gli insegnanti a New York chiedono un aumento di stipendio del 22%.

November  28, 2001

Giuliani Reproaches Teachers for Insisting on a  22% Raise.

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani ripped into the  teachers' union yesterday, accusing it of risking grave damage to the city for continuing to  seek a 22 percent wage increase even after the city's budget has plunged into deficit  following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In response, Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation  of Teachers, accused Mr. Giuliani of exploiting the attacks to avoid dealing with the  call for higher wages.

The union filed papers yesterday with a fact-finding panel  assigned to make a nonbinding contract recommendation, arguing that the city needed to  grant a 22 percent raise to attract the thousands of certified teachers the system  needs.

Estimating that such a raise would cost $1.8 billion, Mr.  Giuliani said, "That's just unrealistic. The city couldn't sustain it. It would do  tremendous damage to the economy of New York City and, with all deference to the teachers'  union, everybody has to show some respect to the city for what it's going through in terms  of the terrible attack on the city."

Ms. Weingarten responded angrily, insisting the union was merely  making the same demands it had made before the September attacks. She said,  "When somebody caustically says that my members are not concerned about the city  because we have the temerity to take the same position as we did before Sept. 11 —  which is what we're doing — that's exploiting the tragedy."

The union, which represents 80,000 teachers, argued in its legal  papers that teachers deserved a 22.7 percent raise to narrow the gap with their suburban  peers, whose higher salaries have lured many city teachers away. Ms. Weingarten said  such a raise would cost the city no more than $500 million more than the 8 percent raise  that Mr. Giuliani has already budgeted for a raise for teachers', whose salaries range  from $31,170 to $70,000. She accused Mr. Giuliani of refusing to negotiate seriously last  year, when the city had a large budget surplus.

Mr. Giuliani ruled out negotiating an agreement with the  teachers, whose contract expired 12 months ago. "There are times in negotiations when  people are so far apart that you just can't reach agreement," he said. "I refuse  to reach any agreement with a union — I always have — that would put the city's  fiscal health in grave jeopardy."

In its legal papers, the union argued that educating the city's  children remained a top priority and that to provide a good education the city had to raise  salaries to recruit and retain enough qualified teachers. The union said the city had to  think long term about improving its educational system and should not let the attacks  prevent it from doing what was needed to achieve that goal.

Officials in the teachers union said they had considered dropping  the fact-finding process, which often involves contentious hearings, in favor of  negotiating with Mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg. But they decided to proceed with the  fact-finding to avoid getting off to a bad start with Mr. Bloomberg by immediately jumping  into tense negotiations.