Fighting for Real Pay That Keeps Up With the Cost of Living - A Better Contract

A real plan for fair pay starts with building union power, not gimmicks or givebacks.

Raises Currently Not Keeping Up With the Cost of Living

We are done with the half-measures and tired excuses. We know you’re feeling the squeeze–skyrocketing rents and housing costs. Commuting and childcare costs are spiraling out of control. Our paychecks are stretched each month; it's hard, if not impossible, to get ahead. UFT leadership, dominated by the Unity caucus, insists they are doing the best they can given the constraints of “pattern bargaining”.

This has resulted in contracts that have left us feeling forced to settle for scraps, A Better Contract says: No more. We have the vision, the strategy, and the ironclad resolve to break free from this dead-end loop and finally secure the raises we deserve. We’re not here to ask politely; we’re here to demand a fair deal—and we’ll mobilize every educator and every worker in this city to make it happen.

We live in a city teeming with billionaire playgrounds, where penthouses pierce the skyline and working families struggle just to keep the lights on. That’s not chance or fate—it’s an orchestrated system that privileges a wealthy few while squeezing the rest of us. Here’s the truth they don’t want you to see: when educators stand up for better wages, we are challenging a rigged status quo that robs workers of a decent living.

Building Our Power

Our battle is bigger than teacher pay; it’s about worker power—the kind that lifts all boats, from transit workers to sanitation crews and beyond. And if you think we can’t shake the status quo, take a long look at the United Auto Workers and Longshoremen, who refused to back down until they got the raises they deserved. Their courage sent shockwaves through the labor landscape. We can—and will—do the same here in New York.

The leadership of the UFT, dominated by the Unity Caucus, isn't just timid; they’ve bought into the very script City Hall uses to keep the municipal workforce under its thumb. They claim that pattern bargaining locks us into a losing game. But here’s the reality: having a pattern should prevent the city from pitting one union against another.

In theory, in pattern bargaining, the municipal labor force comes together and determines what it's willing to accept and uses the leverage of worker power to get the best deal that will apply to all workers. These days, the City hunts for the most vulnerable union, strapped for cash, politically pressured, or facing crises, and coerces them into a weak agreement first. That subpar deal then becomes the low ceiling for all municipal employees, ourselves included.

Building Labor Solidarity Citywide

The Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) once stood united, preventing the City from cherry-picking the weakest link. But under Unity Caucus leadership, complacency has let cracks form in that solidarity and those cracks are growing wider by the day. They’ve effectively handed management a loaded weapon to use against every educator’s paycheck. They’re not just betraying teacher interests—they’ve handed the City a blueprint to pit union against union.

To win real wage gains for educators, we need a powerful show of unity across every municipal union in this city. First, that means reclaiming the MLC’s collective strength by establishing a simple but unbreakable principle: no one settles for a weak deal alone. If the City threatens or corners any single union—whether with layoffs, funding cuts, or smear campaigns—the rest of us close ranks, ready to fight on their behalf. We amplify this solidarity with transparent coordination. We will have secure channels for real-time updates to ensure no union leader or membership is blindsided by secret negotiations, and no backroom deal can slide under the radar.

Our UFT constitution reads:

Move to Transparent Bargaining

Once we’re standing together, it will become much harder for the City to run its usual divide-and-conquer tactics. We all know management loves to target whichever union it perceives as the “weakest link”—maybe one grappling with internal strife or facing urgent financial troubles. But by shining a spotlight on their wedge maneuvers, we rob the City of any advantage. When they single out one union, the entire municipal workforce steps forward to protect them, forcing the City to contend with everyone, all at once.

Turn up the Heat: An Action-Ready City Labor Movement

And we won’t stop there. We’ll turn up the heat with joint action, proving that our solidarity isn’t just talk—it’s muscle. We’ll hold rallies, press conferences, and media blitzes that feature educators, sanitation workers, healthcare professionals, firefighters—every sector of the public workforce. We’ll bring sympathetic City Council allies on board, reminding the powers-that-be that picking on one union means a showdown with all of us.

Even with the constraints of the Taylor Law, we can still deploy symbolic and legal job actions—mass demonstrations, strategic disruptions—that let the public see exactly how serious we are. The City won’t risk ignoring us once they feel the full force of our united momentum.

Reclaim our Union: Bring Power Back to Us

Finally, we empower the rank-and-file, because that’s where real, transformative power lies. When members at every level understand the ins and outs of pattern bargaining—and how the City weaponizes it—they become unstoppable advocates, demanding accountability from union leadership every step of the way. We’ll foster cross-union solidarity by building genuine relationships among locals. For example, educators can stand up for school aides and kitchen workers, and school aides and kitchen workers can stand up for city nurses. We’ll show the City and anyone else who’s watching: we do not fight alone, and we do not back down.

This is how we ensure no one is left to fend off management’s schemes in isolation—and how we transform “pattern bargaining” from a pitfall into a platform for winning the wages and respect all working people in New York City deserve.

Member-Led, Member Centered

At the heart of our movement lies a member-driven approach. Our contract campaign begins in September, 2025. Our power resides in the classrooms, hallways, and school communities where educators do the real work. By bringing member voices to the front and having those voices in every nook and cranny of our city, from community boards to community education councils to city council, into every step of negotiation, we build demands rooted in actual needs and we build authentic allies all over the city. That kind of solidarity makes us impossible to ignore.

We’re done with excuses about so-called “legal limits” or “historical constraints.” Laws can change, and pattern bargaining can be strategically used to our advantage. This will happen when enough people demand it. By rebuilding the power of the MLC and committing never to abandon a single local, we can transform pattern bargaining from a blunt instrument used against us into a powerful tool for lifting all municipal workers.

That’s the essence of A Better Contract: we will stand tall, stand together, and fight for wages that truly honor our dedication to this city.

This is not just about a contract; it’s a battle for worker dignity in a place that all too often bends the knee to wealth and power. Together, we declare—loudly and unflinchingly—that when any one of us is threatened, every last municipal worker rises in defense.

Our message to the City could not be clearer: we will not be broken, we will not be divided, and we will not be sold short. The power to change the rules is right here, in our hands—so long as we have the courage to wield it.

Now is our moment. Let’s make it count. Let’s go out there and win the contract we deserve.

WHEN WE FIGHT, WE WIN!

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