UFT Tries to Block Firing of Unassigned Teaching Fellows

The United Federation of Teachers has filed a grievance with the Department of Education to halt the firing of 130 New York City Teaching Fellows hired in September who remain without an assignment.

MICHAEL MULGREW: DOE ducking moral obligation.

The Teaching Fellows signed a contract with the DOE stating that if they didn't have a permanent placement by Dec. 5, they would be terminated without further pay. The UFT is arguing that such action constitutes a layoff, which is not allowed under its collective bargaining agreement with the DOE, and that the contract supersedes any other document the fellows may have signed.

Claim Promise Broken

The grievance is expected to enter arbitration after its DOE hearing with the Chancellor, which has been scheduled for the middle of this month.

Michael Mulgrew, vice president of Career and Technical High Schools at the UFT, said that the DOE had broken its promises to the Teaching Fellows after hiring them. "The idea of actively articulating for people to come to work here means that there is some responsibility on the employer's behalf," he said in a phone interview. "If you hire someone to come to New York City to work, you should have some responsibility to get them a job. You need to treat workers fairly; it needs to be a fair system."

Mr. Mulgrew said that at a time when the economic climate in the city is getting worse, leaving new Teachers unemployed was unfair. "These are tough economic times, I don't need to tell you this," he said. "Bringing people here to New York City, under the understanding that there are jobs, that they have the ability to get jobs when they come here, and now they cannot, that's very difficult. A lot of these people have left their profession because they wanted to become Teachers."

The overflow of Teaching Fellows in the city is an additional wage problem for the DOE, which is already contending with a growing Absent Teacher Reserve, a pool of veteran instructors who are without jobs but are being paid full salary under their contracts.

"The policy is not new, and we don't think there's anything improper about it," said DOE spokesperson Melody Meyer when contacted. She declined to elaborate further because of the ongoing grievance process.