November 18, 2003

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL

By James Eugene*

City Council Education Committee Chairwoman Eva Moskowitz has decided to hold a series of hearings on the work rules with the City's school labor contracts impacting on the operations of the education system. Her focus is to show some of the lunacy behind the contracts.

The responses from those who do not like the hearings border... No forget the word "border", let's say the responses are an insult to the citizens of the City of New York.

The unions and even the some Administration officials state that the work rules review is not an appropriate matter for a public hearing but a matter for collective bargaining. A Council Member and Education Committee member, Robert Jackson, was quoted in the Daily News as stating, "I don't think that we should be diving into examining contracts."

Others squabble about the format of the hearing. The unions want to go last, the Administration wants to go last, the public should go last. Frankly, Moskowitz should send out thank you notes to all these ninnies as they provide more publicity to what might be the most entertaining set of Council hearings in years.

And the unions and Administration should be ashamed that many of the witnesses fear for their jobs and must testify anonymously. Are we living in a democracy or the Soviet Union? This fear speaks volumes as to the state of City management and the workings of the City's labor unions.

But let's deal with the issue of the propriety of the hearings themselves. For some reason, there is a chorus that the Council should not address this matter.

In fact, this is exactly a matter that the Council should address. Everyone wants to know why certain things in our schools don't work. We have hearings on school construction, hearings on curriculum, and hearings on sex scandals. But decide to examine the real operations that often are written in the union contracts and that is taboo? Someone explain why to me? The Council is not negotiating the new contract, it is only shedding light on the terms of the old ones. And why shouldn't the public, which has a right to know about the rules, learn exactly what they entail?

The teachers and principals unions are not adverse to running advertisements aimed at the general public about how the City should treat them fairly. I can only conjecture, based upon the unions' adverse reactions to these hearings, that if the rules are publicized, the public might not be so ready to believe the spin provided by the union leaderships. The Mayoralty is the representative of the people, and since the people are sovereign, they have a right to know. Hiding the union contracts is plainly anti-democratic. Frankly, if I were the unions, I would be using the hearings to complain about work rules, if any, that they view as archaic and problematic. But the unions seem to shy from that type of counter-offensive. One can only assume they know that what exists is wrong.

And if quoted right, what is Council Member Robert Jackson dreaming of? "The Council should not be examining contracts." Damn, last time I looked, the Council had a Committee on Contracts. Of course, Jackson would know that, since he chairs that Committee! Jackson should not be fighting to stop the hearings, he should be seeking to have the hearings be joint with his Committee.

And lest Jackson forget, the City had a giant scandal over contracts in the 1980's (remember Donald Manes, Stanley Simon, Stanley Friedman and the rest of a group of very prominent politicians who went down in that scandal). A new set of rules on contracts was all promulgated due to that scandal. The Council formed the Contracts Committee as a result of that scandal. With such an attitude, it is no wonder that the public hears little about the Contracts Committee. I have an idea for Jackson… why not abolish the Contracts Committee, your Chairmanship and its stipend? Better yet, give the stipend to Moskowitz for doing a job that Jackson should be doing. Her courage in taking on some powerful unions is uncommon for a Council Member.

The real reason for this brou-ha-ha is that the various school unions do not want to be exposed. Nor does the Administration. It will make it harder to reach a contract agreement because the public will demand that something be done about these rules. It makes their life harder. It requires more negotiation in a set of negotiations that is already going nowhere. More work towards saner work rules is not what they want.

Well sorry; sometimes democracy just takes a little longer.

AND WHILE WE ARE AT IT.

Maybe Jackson should consider having the moribund Contracts Committee hold hearings on other union contracts and their work rules. The only issue is: does he have the guts?

* James Eugene is the pseudonym of a veteran of NYC government affairs. Inside The Big Apple will appear exclusively on the Empire Page. If you want to send tips or column ideas to James Eugene, email them to jameseugene@empirepage.com.