Hochul in talks to make fat pork union deal that could lower retirement age for teachers to 55

ALBANY– Gov. Kathy Hochul is quietly negotiating a possible deal with one of New York’s top labor leaders to allow public workers from teachers to nurses hired after 2014 to retire at 55, sources said.

The potential fat pork deal pact would involve more than a billion dollars in sweetening pensions for the unionized public employees.

Legislative leaders are being kept in the wings of the talks – which could be wed into the state budget package and lead to taxpayers footing billions – with Hochul dealing directly with New York AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento on behalf of New York’s heavyweight teacher, healthcare and other public sector unions, whose members top 2.5 million.

The unions are pushing a proposal that would include lowering the retirement age from 62 to 55 for employees hired since 2012 known as Tier 6, Newsday first reported Wednesday. Those hired before 2014 can currently retire at 55.

The proposal would also lower employees’ contribution rate from 4.5% to 3.5%, according to details shared with The Post from a source familiar with the situation.

If she goes along with it, Hochul’s handout to the unions could cost taxpayers $1.5 billion, split between additional costs handed down to school districts and local governments including New York City, which could be left with $328 million in additional costs.

The unions cry that the pension boosts are necessary to boost “recruitment and retention.”

I have no problem with *private* sector unions.

The freedom door does swing both ways. I was never a “member” - but I did work as a laborer (”helper”, we were called) long, long ago - in a plumbers & pipefitters local, so I was technically working under union contracts. Took the job at the time because it paid better for grunt labor than anything else. My youngest is now giving that a go.

I won’t claim that makes me an expert - but I worked with a lot of grizzled journeymen, some of whom needed me to do things I wasn’t technically supposed to do because sure, I get it. At a certain age? The knees and the body just can’t work themselves into tight spaces and do the physical activity.

But - that’s a private sector deal. The local negotiates with contractors. They make a deal on pay - and pension benefits. Bully.

But the public sector? There shouldn’t be public sector unions.

Yup. Like I said in a separate follow-up post?

Though my career has been white collar, I was a ‘helper’/laborer for a bit in my very young days.

Not a member of the union proper - though I was covered under their contract with the local contractors. As a newbie? That meant I *did* get paid more digging ditches than I would have otherwise. As a kid just starting? Sure - despite the fact I always on-time, always up for overtime, and didn’t slack off... I got paid the same rate as the slackers (and I worked with plenty!)

But - there was still an equalizer:

#1? There’s a concept in *building trades* unions called ‘sitting on the bench’. You’re a good worker? A hard worker? Apprentice, journeyman, or even a lowest level plebe like I was? You don’t sit on the bench long. Prove yourself - contractors want to keep you in between jobs because they’d prefer to pay you for a week or two to “clean up the shop” (I had a couple of occasions of that, where I’d organize fittings bins, etc!) because they wanted to keep you around for the job they were bidding.

#2 While I followed a different path? Getting accepted to an apprenticeship program? Becoming a journeyman? Running a job? Merit still happens. Like I said, not my path - though it may be my youngest’s - but I learned from the vets... Work hard, work smart, work reliably? You’ll excel.

Just some takeaways going back as far as 2023.

New York state invested in a teacher residency program that subsidizes the cost of master’s degrees and certification requirements for new teachers.

More than 8% of the New York City's teachers left the Education Department between fall 2021 and fall 2022, the highest rate of attrition in a decade. Much of that higher-than-usual attrition came from an exodus of teachers who refused to comply with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for school staff. There are also mounting levels of burnout and stress.

In schools with lower income students, more than 1 in 6 teachers who started at the school in fall 2021 had left by fall 2022, either to go to another New York City public school, or out of the system. In the schools with the wealthiest students, just 1 in 10 teachers left. (Both of those are very high. If a teacher's career is nominally 40 years, roughly from age 23 to 62, about 2-3% of teachers should retire and be replaced each year.

[United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew] said some teachers who speak multiple languages have certificates to work as bilingual teachers, but opt not to because the “state requires them to go back into a probationary status if they want to switch… we don’t feel that should be there any more.” (That or they don't want to waste their time teaching students whose families don't value education, or the students are not up to the curriculum).

New York City Education Department officials are estimating the that a new state law capping class sizes across the city will eventually require the city to increase its teaching workforce by 9,000 members in order to shrink class sizes. That means hiring significantly more teachers in the coming years, on top of the normal 4,000 to 5,000 the city has to hire every year to replace those who left.

Enrollment in NY State Teacher Education programs has declined by 53% between 2010 and 2018.

More than 1/3 of NY teachers could retire (by 2023).

There are a few things public education is not going to overcome:

Shot mandates - who would go down such a career field only to be told they must be injection raped with an experimental shot that could kill or maim them?

A declining state - New York State is declining in almost every metric: population, economy, costs, density. People are fleeing the state so much that the state continues to lose Congressional seats.

Divorce rates and unmarried rates. Many teachers salaries supplanted a spouse's salary. Increasingly, with only one income due to divorce or lack of marriage, the salary doesn't go far enough.

"Sanctuary State" and "Sanctuary City" policies - the government conspires against citizens, bringing in foreigners who have no business being in the country, much less a classroom. (You as a teacher are supposed to somehow accomodate that).

Teachers are forced to be indoctrinators and not actually teach students. (Meaning it's not a calling anymore, it's just being a mouthpiece for the Democrat Party).

One perceived comment or slight can end your career. Fewer and fewer are willing to take that risk.

I’m with you 100% about Scott Walker. During the “Insurrection Between the Stanchions” I thought for sure Scott Walker would at least be brought up to compare and contrast how he dealt with a similar situation that lasted an entire week with Demonrats vandalizing the Wisconsin capitol building. Nothing. Not even Mark Steyn, who can go the distance with Dennis Miller for putting obscure references in a topical conversation, brought him up.

Walker was my first choice for 2016 before he dropped out immediately after Iowa. Then Cruz and finally (after Cruz melted before our very eyes like Margaret Hamilton in the Wizard of Oz) Trump all the way and no looking back.

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