As I expected, some ex-members who resigned or were terminated before the age of 55 have decided to file a lawsuit to get their much deserved retroactive raises between the 2009-13 school years which was unfairly deprived by the City and the UFT in the recently negotiated contract. How any union could eliminate up to 9,000 ex members from getting the retroactive pay that they worked for is just plain wrong. Yet, that is exactly what happened with the UFT. It appears the UFT violated the equal protection under the law provisions in New York State, I guess time will tell if the lawsuit is successful.
While I believe the inadequate contract was a favor to the De Blasio Administration that allowed the City to establish a"city pattern" that got the City off cheaply. However, why did the union sacrifice many of the members to satisfy the City? Not only will 9,000 ex members who resigned. terminated, discontinued, or died not get their retroactive pay but add another 3,000+ ATRs who are now second class citizens with an expedited 3020-a process based on a vaguely worded and defined "unprofessional behavior". Moreover, any ATR that won their 3020-a hearings will be not offered vacancies or temporary positions by the DOE. These 250+ educators are now known as the "untouchables". This group, I'm told will include any ATR "U rated" in the last school year.
Hopefully, the ex members will win their lawsuit and be getting their much deserved back pay and the next lawsuit the union may have to deal with is the ATRs for their failure to properly represent them and allowed the DOE to impose different rules on them that no other Municipal unions have for their members.