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by WILLIAM MURPHY
Thousands of teachers, police officers and firefighters are expected to rally outside City Hall today to demand fair labor contracts with the Bloomberg administration.
Unions insist the contract approved last week by District Council 37 is unfair to workers. It had a $1,000 taxable bonus in the first year, a 3 percent wage hike in the second and a 2 percent raise in the third, which will begin July 1. The teachers and uniformed unions, who had been feuding just a year ago over funding a health care program, have now united to try to break the pattern set by DC 37 when it approved the contract.
The United Federation of Teachers, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association and the Uniformed Firefighters Association organized the rally, but workers from other unions are also expected to attend. The three unions ran full-page ads in city newspapers yesterday telling Mayor Michael Bloomberg that if he can't pay them what they're worth, "He should at least pay them what's fair."
There is tremendous pressure on the city and the leadership of the teachers and uniformed unions because workers can go to the suburbs and get better pay, according to Stanley Aronowitz, a sociology professor at CUNY Graduate Center.
Bloomberg reiterated yesterday that the DC 37 deal set the pattern. "Well, the major labor union in this city has already come to an agreement and their settlement ... has been ratified by, I think, 89 percent of their members," he said.
The rally is scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. in City Hall Park. Teachers union president Randi Weingarten also will lead a march across the Brooklyn Bridge to join the rally.
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