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Controversial Pension Deal

To the Editor:

In my opinion, the recent agreement between the United Federation of Teachers and the city is Tier 5 despite what the UFT says. It decreases benefits for new UFT employees, pension and otherwise. It also decreases the TDA fixed interest rate for all UFT employees.

In addition, if Teachers and students report on the same day, there will be chaos in the schools. This will need to be addressed.

It looks like the other unions may need to make their own deals. My feelings on this are as follows: I am totally against any pension reductions for police officers, firefighters, sanitation workers and other physically taxing titles. Their jobs are hard enough.

I feel that eventually even my union, District Council 37, will need to make a deal. I will support such a deal if it only includes new members and, more importantly, it includes a reopener of Chapter 96, commonly known as 55/25. The UFT has already received this benefit; why can we?
CHRIS INGUANTA
DC 37 member