We, the Rank-and-File Educators of Miami Dade (RFEMD), unequivocally reject this latest tentative agreement. A 0.57%- 0.76% base pay raise for instructional, and 0% base pay raise to all other bargaining unit members is unacceptable and insulting to our already exploited workforce, especially after all its hard work during a very difficult school year. Bonuses and supplements should be on top of, not instead of the stability of strong pay raises. We have many unanswered questions including the following:
– How do we know the district has only money for base pay raises of less than 1% when they originally lied and said there was no money at all?
– Why hasn’t UTD leadership taken a stronger stance in looking at and breaking down district financial resources?
– Where is all the money that was saved from not having to run the district at full capacity for a whole school year?
– Where are the increased property tax revenues from skyrocketing home values and an influx of new county residents we’ve been hearing of since the pandemic began?
– Where did the money go that was saved by older, higher salary employees leaving and replaced by newer, lower salary employees?
– How can the district -barely spending any of its own funds for salary increases- shamelessly claim it has no money all while using RRAS (Referendum funds) and the Governor’s Relief Funds (a $1500 for a Return-to-Work stipend) to replace rather, than augment strong base salary increases? To recruit and retain new and veteran teachers as we argued when campaigning for the funds, they need to be in addition to, not a replacement for, strong stable base salary increases.
The short story of it – the district, Tallahassee, and UTD leadership all play a role in keeping base pay down since the elimination of the step system. Movement along the steps gave teachers a pathway to the top in an effectively cost neutral way, as only the names of employees on the steps changed with roughly equivalent numbers over time of veteran, higher paid staff retiring replaced by new, lower paid staff. Raises were increases to the step amount, not movement along a step for years of experience. Now they recycle the money saved on the elimination of the step experience movement and call it a “raise”. Or use bonus or referendum funds that are meant to supplement base pay to replace base pay raises. If the district is solvent, it is by underpaying teachers year after year. Enough of this! They must do better than less than 1% base pay raises. With inflation at 5.1% over the past year, we are looking at an over 4% cut in real base pay!
Instead of encouraging democratic debate and discussion amongst the membership, UTD leadership will try to scare the bargaining unit into voting YES on this tentative agreement by saying that if it’s voted down it will result in no additional compensation and a possible impasse where an arbitrator will impose its own arbitrary decision. Scare tactics, dismissing criticism, and toe-the-line expectations belong in dictatorships, not in unions priding themselves as membership-driven institutions of democratic societies. What UTD leadership fails to tell members is that a return to bargaining can very well also result in additional compensation…that criticism, debate, and the willingness to vote no on bad contracts is essential for democratic and powerful unionism. Don’t let them scare you into accepting a bad deal. Vote NO!
miami educator 