Razzle Dazzle: Bloomberg's Labor Pangs

Razzle Dazzle
Bloomberg's Labor Pangs

By RICHARD STEIER

The possibility of the United Federation of Teachers taking a strike authorization vote next month if the Bloomberg administration does not negotiate a new contract is unlikely to quicken the Mayor's pulse. But the other part of the threat contained in the resolution approved by union delegates Sept. 20 - that the UFT will make a mayoral endorsement at that time - might get his blood pumping.

In whatever respects Michael Bloomberg differs temperamentally from George Steinbrenner, it can safely be stated that he also doesn't spend far more than his competitors merely to assure a good run for his money. And unlike the Yankee owner, the Mayor does not have the luxury of saying "Wait 'til next year" if he loses this time.

And so UFT President Randi Weingarten's gaining delegate approval of the best bargaining leverage at her disposal was the second part of a bad union day for Mr. Bloomberg, coming less than seven hours after Local 1199 of the Service Employees' International Union endorsed Freddy Ferrer for Mayor.

Not Seismic, But 'A Big Plus'

NOT GETTING THE CALLS: The decision by Local 1199 President Dennis Rivera (left) to endorse Freddy Ferrer reduces Mayor Bloomberg's bargaining leverage with the United Federation of Teachers, since losing the UFT to the Ferrer camp would give his opponent the backing of two unions with better phone bank and election-day operations than his biggest labor backer, District Council 37.

It didn't mean the balance of power had swung for the Nov. 8 election. A poll completed that day for Quinnipiac College showed Mr. Bloomberg leading Mr. Ferrer by 52 to 38 percent, at a time when the Democratic nominee might have been expected to be riding a post-primary bounce.

Mickey Carroll, the ex-political reporter who is director of polling operations for Quinnipiac, said the 1199 endorsement, which was delivered after his poll of 1,500 voters was completed, was "a big plus" for Ferrer.

But with the same dispassionate analysis born of experience that led him to forecast, a few days before the last election for President, "Bush, narrowly," Mr. Carroll said the 1199 endorsement and the possibility of the UFT also backing Mr. Ferrer would merely make it a closer contest. "I don't see a Bloomberg blow-out; I would expect a single-digit victory," he remarked.

Of course, Mr. Bloomberg isn't spending $100 million or more on the campaign to have to sweat out a close vote or worry about turning out his base as well as Mr. Ferrer. If turnout is an issue, it's a problem for the Mayor, and Mr. Carroll noted that is where the true power of 1199 - whose endorsement the Mayor avidly sought - lies.

"If you've ever been over to their offices, you've seen the rows of phones," Mr. Carroll said. "That union will do a lot of work and it will stir up the Latino community," referring to the fact that a large segment of 1199's membership, including its dynamic president, Dennis Rivera, is of Hispanic descent.

That gives Mr. Ferrer a particularly energized base, Mr. Carroll said, running against "a Mayor who is respected but not loved, or even terribly well-liked."

On the other side of the coin are several factors in Mr. Bloomberg's favor, including a solid record over his first term. "When you have term limits, people tend to give incumbents two terms," Mr. Carroll said. "And the Bloomberg ads before the primary were brilliant," focusing heavily on having members of the public comment on his achievements, in contrast to the commercials of Democrats like Anthony Weiner and Gifford Miller that relied on the candidates' stickball ability or acting talent to stir the electorate.

Jeter to Rudy to Mike

Recalling how Mr. Bloomberg's saturation bombing of the airwaves four years ago helped him to overcome a 16-point deficit in the polls during the last two weeks of the general election campaign against Mark Green, Mr. Carroll said, "If you were watching the World Series, you had to look over Bloomberg and Giuliani's shoulder to see Derek Jeter field a groundball."

Kenneth Sherrill, a Political Science Professor at Hunter College, contended that the same tactics might not produce such happy results this time. "It may be more the case that Mark Green lost than that Bloomberg won four years ago," he said in a phone interview. "I don't get the sense that Bloomberg's support is terribly passionate. It's lukewarm, it's soft. And one of the things 1199 is great at is getting out the vote."

Political consultant George Arzt, who also believes that Mr. Bloomberg is still likely to win, echoed that point, saying, "For Freddy, the endorsement is very important in those areas where his support has to come out. They know what to do in those areas to get people to the polls."

All of which makes the UFT's battle with Mr. Bloomberg over the unresolved wage contract a particularly dicey issue for the Mayor. There would seem little likelihood that he could win the union's endorsement even if he reached a deal over the next few weeks, although 20 years ago, the then-president of Teamsters Local 237, Barry Feinstein, went from vilifying Mayor Ed Koch to sanctifying his re-election in the month that it took to transform a wage stalemate into a new contract.

But neutrality on the part of the UFT would give Mr. Bloomberg some cushion in his race with Mr. Ferrer.

"I think that Teachers in general are a Bloomberg vote," Mr. Arzt said. "If they get into the mix with Freddy, it's not good for Bloomberg."

Klein An Obstacle?

Presumably, that's a calculation Mr. Bloomberg and his advisers have also made. And so his silence to this point on the fact-finding proposal for a UFT contract has four possible explanations: 1) Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, who according to several sources threatened to resign a year ago if the Mayor approved a deal he believed did not contain enough work-rule changes, is stamping his foot again; 2) The Mayor's genuinely concerned about giving Teachers an 11-percent raise without getting the same kind of productivity savings he secured from the contracts with District Council 37 and the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association; 3) The proposal by the fact-finders to reassign Teachers to cafeteria and hallway duty, while a breakthrough for the city, also is a potential headache for the Mayor because it could work to the detriment of his supporters at DC 37; or 4) He believes he can use his hard line here to further make the case that a vote for him will protect the city treasury from the union hordes that are flocking to Mr. Ferrer.

That was the clear spin being propagated by his chief political adviser, Bill Cunningham, in telling reporters prior to the 1199 endorsement being announced that Mr. Rivera had spurned the Mayor because he wouldn't agree to place home healthcare workers on the city payroll.

As Mr. Cunningham and other mayoral aides described it, Mr. Bloomberg was protecting the city's purse against unreasonable union demands, with the implication being that Mr. Ferrer had other priorities.

'Workers Exploited'

Mr. Rivera framed it in rather different terms while endorsing Mr. Ferrer. Pointing out that the home healthcare staffers he represents receive no health insurance from their employers, he said, "These workers are angels, yet the work they do often leaves them in poverty. That is a disgrace."

What raised eyebrows among union leaders and political pros alike was the Bloomberg camp's willingness to go public with alleged demands made in private conversations about a possible 1199 endorsement.

As Mr. Arzt, who as a former Press Secretary to Mr. Koch was privy to similar types of conversations, put it, "When you come into that room with the Mayor, you say things that you don't necessarily want reported outside of it. The other unions are probably saying now, 'How can I negotiate [regarding an endorsement] if I can't tell them what I want?'''

Mr. Bloomberg was lauded in some quarters for apparently resisting Mr. Rivera's entreaties, but it's doubtful he converted anyone who wasn't already voting for him. For those not tilting his way, the administration's gripe sounded like the plaint of a jilted suitor.

Could Hurt DC 37

The fact-finders' proposal on the UFT deal could have a ripple effect on DC 37, the Mayor's most prominent municipal union backer, whose largest local represents the employees who currently perform hallway and cafeteria duty. In fact, Local 372 gained that status in DC 37 as the direct result of the 1996 deal between the Giuliani administration and the UFT that relieved Teachers of those duties, requiring the hiring of several thousand school aides to handle the chores. Presumably most, if not all, of those employees would no longer be needed if Teachers went back to cafeteria and hallway patrols, which would not please DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts or her biggest political ally within the union, Local 372 President Veronica Montgomery Costa.

UFT delegates made clear how unhappy they were with that proposed change and several other recommendations made by the fact-finders that would require Teachers to work additional assignments without what they regard as fair compensation. One of those mentioned most often was the proposal that would require Teachers in middle and high schools to cover up to 12 classes for absent colleagues without extra compensation, compared to the old standard of two classes.

Educational Concern

Teachers currently receive a differential of about $35 for each class covered above the required amount. That money is not the prime reason Chancellor Klein sought an expansion of Principals' powers to assign in such situations. The bigger issues concern the cost of hiring per-diem substitutes in cases where there are no volunteers among full-time staff, and the fact that from an educational standpoint, students are far more likely to show respect to and absorb instruction from Teachers who they know will be in the building for the rest of the school year and may already be dealing with them in other classes.

It would seem that this proposal, and other changes that restrict seniority transfers and allow for more decisive disciplinary action against Teachers accused of improper sexual relationships, give Mr. Klein a large piece of what he was looking for in terms of school reforms.

If he doesn't think so, he's not being realistic, according to one government official with no stake in the matter. This official, speaking conditioned on anonymity, said the fact-finders managed to "get enough reform in [their proposal] that it's hard for the city to walk away."

That much could be gleaned from the protests of many of the UFT delegates.

"Rights of our members are being taken away that people before me fought for," said Francine Cornelius, a delegate who has taught for the past nine years at P.S. 234 in Tribeca. "It doesn't treat us as professionals, and it puts an undue burden on our members that don't deserve it."

One veteran delegate who did not give his name said that if Ms. Weingarten accepted the findings, "She's selling us down the river."

Protected the Unborn

Those delegates are looking at the proposal outside the context of the deals to this point with other civilian unions and the PBA, which include some work rule changes but derive the greatest savings to the city from reducing compensation for new hires. Ms. Weingarten made clear she didn't want to go that route, which would work to the long-term disadvantage of both the union and her future there; in contrast to Ms. Roberts at DC 37 and PBA President Pat Lynch, she figures to be running the UFT beyond her next term.

The Bloomberg administration also made clear throughout the bargaining process that its primary need was changes in the UFT contract to eliminate some of the abuses and shortages that pact made possible. And so it seems a bit disingenuous for the Mayor to be objecting to the pay package, given that its average yearly value is more than a point below the PBA deal's, even without a full offset in productivity savings.

Mr. Arzt said that if Mr. Klein was the obstacle to reaching a deal based on the fact-finders' report, "I think Bloomberg's gotta stand by him."

Politics Might Intrude

If the polls start to tighten up and the UFT looks primed to endorse Mr. Ferrer, however, such assessments may have to be revised. There would come a point when the Mayor might be staring at the unthinkable, and would have to ask himself how essential Mr. Klein would be as the Schools Chancellor of Bloomberg L.P.

Mr. Ferrer looms as the most dangerous sort of underdog for Mr. Bloomberg: the kind who believes he can win and runs with confidence rather than a sense of desperation. Urging the Mayor to debate him more than twice, as it is widely expected will be the limit during this campaign, he prompted cheers from his supporters packing 1199's auditorium when he challenged Mr. Bloomberg "to stand up and defend your policies, stand up and defend your administration. Don't depend on a $100 million campaign. Come on out and go mano a mano with me."

Ms. Weingarten sounded less hopeful that she would be able to engage the Mayor when she delivered a similar message early that evening. Getting a reasonable contract is more important to her than knocking off Mr. Bloomberg.

If she concludes sometime this fall that she can't have one without the other and tells her members to "come on out" for Mr. Ferrer, however, the Mayor may regret standing her up.