Posts tagged Bill de Blasio
Powerful NYC teachers union endorses Zohran Mamdani despite radical take on mayoral control of schools
July 10, 2025 // The United Federation of Teachers’ resolution recommending Mamdani’s endorsement applauded his pledge of “revamping mayoral control [of schools] to give more say to educators and parents.” Mamdani’s education platform “supports an end to mayoral control” in favor of “co-governance.”
Cuomo’s education plan filled with goodies for powerful teachers’ union — as he tones down support of charter schools
May 21, 2025 // “Cuomo is definitely playing ball with the teachers’ union,” said a longtime political insider. His plan does promote other initiatives backed by the UFT and public school teachers, such as more early childhood education programs and “community schools” with wraparound health services. He also backed implementing the UFT-backed class size reduction law with adequate state funding.
Michael Watson: The Union and the Republican Prize Patrol
May 19, 2025 // But as “the union that rules New York” waves goodbye to its self-interested longtime boss, allow me the opportunity to give a brief history lesson, one that should serve as a warning to those Republicans and conservatives who hope to appease unions into political dominance. Because even as he was launching the political careers of leftists like former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), Gresham and his predecessor Dennis Rivera played union whisperer to a now-deceased faction of New York State politics: the Republican “Prize Patrol.”
Op-Ed: Mayor Adams seeks to pour more good money after bad in surrender to teaching unions before election
December 2, 2024 // This is madness: The city Department of Education spends about $30,000 per student; there’s no reason to spend even more on schools that are teaching ever-fewer kids. No reason except for the fact that those schools would need to lay off teachers to meet their new budgets, and the UFT is outraged at the thought of losing a dime in dues.
Staten Island Ferry workers union agrees on $103 million labor contract with NYC after 13-year delay
September 5, 2023 // After 13 years without one, the Staten Island Ferry workers’ union has reached a deal with Mayor Eric Adams’ administration on a labor contract that ensures retroactive raises and establishes new scheduling and vacation protocols. The deal, announced by Adams on Monday, ensures salary increases of at least 38% for all Staten Island Ferry captains, assistant captains, mates and engineers, as calculated from the retroactive Nov. 7, 2010 start date of the contract through the Jan. 4, 2027, end date. The contract will cost city taxpayers a total of $103 million. Renee Campion, Adams’ Labor Relations commissioner, explained the wage structure means Staten Island Ferry mates will earn $124,400 annually at the end of the contract if they’ve been on the payroll since 2010. By comparison, a Staten Island Ferry mate earned $51,000 in 2010.
Prosecutors’ star witness in New York corruption trials wins new sentencing
July 27, 2023 // Hellerstein, in denying Rechnitz's request for recusal in 2020, acknowledged that he had been close friends with Kaplan's father and had known Kaplan since he was born. Hellerstein said that when Kaplan asked for advice about the Platinum case, he had agreed to talk about it because he "felt that I should consider his request as if it were made by my son." Nonetheless, he said Kaplan did not have enough of a connection to Rechnitz's case to warrant recusal. The 2nd Circuit said that was a mistake. "Not only did the district judge have a close, near-paternal relationship with Kaplan, he also advised Kaplan on how to proceed in his pending criminal case arising from the Platinum fraud," the panel wrote. "The judge's relationship with Kaplan was sufficiently close, and Kaplan's case was sufficiently related to Rechnitz's case, that a reasonable person would have questioned the district court's impartiality."
PBA head Patrick Lynch won’t seek reelection after years at helm of NYPD’s biggest union
April 12, 2023 // Lynch, the longest-serving president of the city’s largest police union, announced his departure after hammering out a new contract between the PBA and the city last week. The PBA had been working without a contract for six years before the deal was reached. Under Lynch’s leadership, officers also turned their backs on de Blasio when he spoke at the fallen officers’ funerals, as well as at the funeral of Police Officer Miosotis Familia in 2017. Lynch made headlines — and ruffled a few political feathers — when he and the union endorsed former President Donald Trump for reelection in 2020. It was the first time in the union’s history that it formally backed a presidential candidate, he noted at the time.
Ex-NYC mayor Bill de Blasio lobbying for Joe Biden to make him Labor secretary
February 10, 2023 // During de Blasio’s eight years as mayor, the Big Apple’s municipal workforce ballooned from 297,349 in June 2014 to a record high of 326,739 in June 2019. As of June 30, 2022 — six months after he left office — the number had declined to 304,095, due to a hiring freeze and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. De Blasio, 61, also struck deals with the city’s labor unions that included a retroactive pact that gave the nearly 100,000 members of District Council 37 annual raises of 2%, 2.25% and 3%. Keep up with today's most important news Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update. Enter your email address By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The combined effects of his actions pushed total payroll spending from $41 billion to $53.4 billion, a 30% increase.
City Workers Losing Patience With Slow Crawl to Union Contracts
January 31, 2023 // Most city employees are now working under expired labor contracts that lapsed as far back as 2020 — frustrating rank-and-file union members whose anticipated pay raises are tied up in an escalating battle over proposed changes to retired colleagues’ health coverage. Nearly all of the city’s roughly 300,000 unionized staff are working under expired collective bargaining agreements. They include members of the city’s largest public sector unions, District Council 37 (DC37) and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). Administrative workers, school crossing guards, teachers, police detectives, sanitation workers and health technicians are among those eager to bargain for raises as well as potential new benefits, such as flexibility to work remotely.
Judge orders NYPD union members fired over vax mandate reinstated
September 26, 2022 // In the stunning decision, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lyle Frank wrote that the city’s vaccine mandate on the Police Benevolent Association was invalid “to the extent it has been used to impose a new condition of employment” on the union. The mandate was also invalid because it issued enforcement beyond “monetary sanctions” prescribed in the law, Frank wrote — ordering that all PBA members put on leave or canned be reinstated. Department of Mental Health and Hygiene,