End of rubber rooms a “big deal,” but bigger issues remain
When he announced that he would close the city’s infamous rubber rooms yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared, “to say that this is a big deal is an understatement.”
The agreement will shutter the reassignment centers where teachers wait idly for their cases to be heard, a process both the city and union have accused each other of dragging on interminably. But the deal, which wasstruck outside of formal contract negotiations, does little to resolve the most contentious issues the city and union have long fought over.
Yesterday’s rubber room agreement traded one largely-ignored time-line for hearing cases for a speedier one. Union and city officials pledged to strictly adhere to the faster schedule and clear out the backlog of cases by the end of the year.
“We want a faster, fairer process,” United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said. “That’s the
The agreement will shutter the reassignment centers where teachers wait idly for their cases to be heard, a process both the city and union have accused each other of dragging on interminably. But the deal, which wasstruck outside of formal contract negotiations, does little to resolve the most contentious issues the city and union have long fought over.
Yesterday’s rubber room agreement traded one largely-ignored time-line for hearing cases for a speedier one. Union and city officials pledged to strictly adhere to the faster schedule and clear out the backlog of cases by the end of the year.
“We want a faster, fairer process,” United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said. “That’s the