For The Record

He may have meant his earlier embraces strictly as Platonic gestures of friendship, but Joel "The Kissing Chancellor" Klein was the target of a pre-emptive shake by Randi Weingarten last week.

The occasion was the announcement of an agreement between the Bloomberg administration and the United Federation of Teachers on a school-wide bonus program in the city's 200 most-troubled schools that the Mayor contended would create "a culture that stresses results and positive collaborations."

At a couple of previous contract deals, Mr. Klein has been seized by the impulse to grab Ms. Weingarten and kiss her. There is no evidence that he attempted any funny business in the clinches, but the UFT leader was visibly less than thrilled by his getting that up-close and personal.

And so when she stepped to the podium in the City Hall Blue Room following Mr. Bloomberg's remarks, Ms. Weingarten decided to beat Mr. Klein to the buss.

"I want to thank the Chancellor," she said. "We're gonna shake hands, though, okay?"

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Mr. Bloomberg, asked whether he would prefer that the bonus money was apportioned based on performance rather than giving each Teacher in a high-needs school the same amount, responded, "I am a capitalist and I'm in favor of individual incentives for people, yes."

He agreed to leave such decisions to the discretion of individual schools' pay committees, however, noting, "In the schools it is much more a collaborative effort. They can decide to allocate it evenly, or allocate it in a system where some get more than others."

He added, "We want to reward you if you do a good job, and I guess you could argue that we don't want to reward you if you don't."

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Earlier this year, Mark Rosenthal took some heat from us after we discovered that the union he heads, Motor Vehicle Operators Local 1983 of District Council 37, included 700 agency-shop-fee-payers in a total group of 2,500.

Under the agency-shop law governing public workers, those who decline to join a union nonetheless are required to pay a fee equaling the regular member dues. This means that unless an employee is opposed to joining the union for a specific reason, there is no benefit to being a nonmember.

Mr. Rosenthal contended that, unlike some other DC 37 local presidents, he never refrained from seeking new members out of concern that they might support a political opponent, and to prove it, undertook a recruiting drive.

He reported back last week that after sending out information about the benefits of union membership - primarily, being able to vote in the local's elections and on matters like dues increases - 143 of them opted to become full-fledged members.

As to why the other 550-plus declined, Mr. Rosenthal said he believed many of them are Parks Department seasonal employees who because they are uncertain that they will return to the agency next year don't see the value in union membership.

"Ninety percent of my 'permanents' are members," he said.

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Police Commissioner Ray Kelly will join two union leaders and the head of District Council 37's retirees' association as honorees of the Council of Jewish Organizations in Civil Service at its annual breakfast Nov. 4.

Communications Workers of America Local 1180 President Arthur Cheliotes, UNITE HERE leader Bruce Raynor, District Council 37 Retirees Association head Stu Leibowitz and Amalgamated Bank First Vice President Hy Federman are the others being cited.

The breakfast will be held at the Sheraton New York Hotel from 9 a.m. to noon, with tickets going for $65 each. For further information, call Shirley Gray at (212) 598-7066.

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As this newspaper hit the stands Oct. 23, United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten was taking part in a New York University forum entitled, "Politics and the 'F' Word: Does Feminism Matter?"

The event, which was to begin at 9 a.m. at NYU's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service in the Puck Building at 295 Lafayette St., focused on whether a "women's agenda" exists in today's political life.