Mayor Eric Adams’ union-contract strategy is becoming all-too-clear: Agree to most or all of what the labor bosses demand — and get nothing whatsoever back in return.
Thursday’s deals with multiple uniformed-worker unions follow his accord Tuesday with the United Federation of Teachers: generous pay hikes in exchange for absolutely no changes to offset the costs.
The UFT’s 120,000 members get a 20% raise over five years, plus “retention bonuses” set to go on forever.
The $6.4 billion deal grants hikes of 3% for the first three years (retroactive to 2022), followed by years of 3.25% and 3.5% raises.
Contracts for sanitation, correction, fire and the remaining police unions all follow the same pattern. (It’s conceivable, but unlikely, these deals will finish with some givebacks.)
Teachers also get a $3,000 “ratification” bonus, then “retention” ones of $400 next year, $700 in 2025 and $1,000 in 2026 and every year thereafter.
By 2027, top salaries will hit $151,271; starting ones, $72,349.
What a nice reward for the enormous learning loss kids suffered thanks to unnecessary union-backed remote school during COVID — and for the UFT not backing Adams in his run for mayor.
Most troublingly, as Citizens Budget Commission expert Ana Champeny notes, the deal contains “no work rule changes” or “productivity changes” to offset new costs. Everyone suffers but the union.
Even liberal Mayor Mike Bloomberg won added instruction time in exchange for teacher raises in 2002.
And no: The agreement on an expansive voluntary virtual-learning program isn’t even close to a concession. Indeed, it’s more of a perk: Teachers looking to make a few extra bucks can do a virtual class.
Is Adams trying to bankrupt the city? For all his talk of governing “smarter,” these deals do no such thing.
True, they roughly follow the “pattern” of recent agreements with other unions. Yet that’s the problem: None of the union deals in the current round of talks include any significant givebacks.
Sure, hikes can help offset Bidenflation, but the city simply hasn’t budgeted enough to pay for them.
As Nicole Gelinas has noted, the “pattern” hikes are on course to add more than $4 billion to the city’s budget gap for fiscal 2027, pushing it over $11 billion.
Adams is plainly hoping to buy union support for his next campaign with cushy taxpayer-funded contract deals.
But if he is reelected, he’s going to be the one stuck with the biting budget crunch.