City Hall Memo - Bloomberg and Teachers Wrestle Over 4% Pay Raises - NYTimes.com:"As he sought to persuade wary voters that he deserved a third term as mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg sold himself as a no-nonsense financial watchdog who was ready to swing the budget ax."
But City Hall’s contract negotiations with the United Federation of Teachers are sorely testing those claims.
The powerful union is asking the city for 4 percent annual raises for its 87,000 teachers, the same pay increase that the Bloomberg administration gave municipal workers throughout the mayor’s second term.
A year ago, the teachers’ raises seemed inevitable. In fact, the city has already set aside enough money to give teachers 4 percent increases over the next two years.