"The 3-year tentative agreement, outlined during a heated 2-hour union meeting at Cobo Hall, would save the deficit-ridden district $62.8 million, Robert Bobb, emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools, said after the meeting. It also would eliminate the need for DPS to file bankruptcy, he said.Members will vote over the next two weeks.
Bobb said the deferred pay -- the issue that raised the most hostility Sunday -- is not a wage cut but will reduce DPS cash-flow problems while placing those wages in protected accounts.
Money will be returned upon the employee's departure.DFT President Keith Johnson urged teachers to consider that rejecting the contract could lead to bankruptcy, in which job protection could be disregarded.'I suggest you go back to the negotiation table,' Kimberly Porter, a teacher at Cass Tech High, said amid cheers."