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Tag: New York Mayor

  • New York City Teachers Approve Nine-Year Labor Contract

    New York City teachers have voted and approved a nine-year labor contract on Tuesday. The contract states that teachers will be given back pay, and their salaries will be increased by 18 percent. However, questions regarding their health benefits are still left unanswered.

    About 90,000 votes were cast by union members, and out of those, 77 percent were said to have voted in favor of the contract. The negotiators reached a deal on May 1, almost five years after the labor dispute.

    Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said “The new agreement gives teachers and parents a larger voice in how their schools are run and how they can better serve their students.”

    Mayor Bill de Blasio said that education determines a child’s destiny, and the contract was sought in order to transform public education.

    Mulgrew also stated that he fought hard in order for the union members to accept the contract. Some of the members had problems with the deal, since the raises would be paid out over the years and not immediately. The deal also promised to lessen health care costs by as much as $1.3 billion, but members said that number can be achieved through other efficient means.

    The United Federation of Teachers only rejected a contract once, when the teachers were asked to take a two-year wage freeze. After a few changes to the contract, they ended up approving the deal.

    The majority of the members agreed with the new contract, since they say that it is the best that they can get. Others also agreed to the contract as a way to support de Blasio, as local residents see him as a friendlier mayor, compared to Bloomberg.

    Suzette Freedman, a third-grade teacher said, “The last mayor was not very pro-teacher and wasn’t interested in our well-being.

    After the results announcement, de Blasio said, “We are going to help good educators stay and grow in this profession, and usher reform that will lift up kids across the whole system.” He continued, “At the same time, we are securing unprecedented health care savings, which makes this a fiscally responsible contract that protects our budgets and our taxpayers.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Al Roker Berates Mayor De Blasio Via Twitter

    New York City experienced blizzards on Thursday, and schools were kept open by the NYC administration. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was criticized for not following New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s lead, when Governor Cuomo declared a state of emergency.

    Elected officials and teacher’s unions called de Blasio’s decision to keep schools open a mistake, as the city was preparing to be engulfed in more than a foot of snow. Al Roker, the NBC weather anchor, published tweets complaining about this, even while he was busy covering the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

    The Today show weather anchor started with a tweet where he questioned why the other schools surrounding NYC were closed. He also expressed worry that a child may have to be hurt in the blizzard before NYC changes their “goofball policy”. His next tweet was addressed to New York City schools and the New York City Mayor’s office, and he mentioned that his daughter’s NYC public school was being let out, and he ended with asking NYC schools and the NYC Mayor’s office if it was worth endangering the children?

    Mayor de Blasio stated in a press conference Thursday morning that New York is unlike other cities, and it doesn’t shut down in the face of adversity. He defended his decision to keep the schools open, by explaining the State’s declaration. He explains that when NY Gov. Cuomo declared the state of emergency, it meant that the state and the city is allowed to do certain things regarding the situation. He continued by saying that with the information that they had, they knew clearly that the city was functioning properly, and that city agencies were doing their job.

    With all of this information, the Mayor’s office decided to keep schools open, since parents would need their children in school so they could go to work.

    Roker tweeted a forecast, predicting that de Blasio would only have one term in in office as New York Mayor.

     

     

     

    Image via YouTube

  • Chiara de Blasio, Daughter of NY Mayor-elect, Admits to Drug Abuse

    The daughter of New York City Mayor-elect, Bill de Blasio, has recently revealed her substance abuse and clinical depression in a YouTube video confession posted on Christmas Eve.

    Chiara de Blasio, 19, admitted to suffering from both during her entire adolescence. In a well-crafted and professional video produced by her father’s staff, she explains how drinking and smoking marijuana carried on into college.

    During Mr. De Blasio’s campaign, there was speculation of his daughter’s history of drug and alcohol abuse, but the family made sure to shield all details during the candidacy.

    The video confession comes at a time where the meaning of family is even more important than any other time of the year. So, it may have been an ideal time to show others that even those related to politicians go through the same struggles as every day people.

    De Blasio mentions how she used substances as a way to connect with people around her that she wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.

    Her reason for speaking out about her struggle was to inform those who are suffering and dying from the disease every day that they are not alone.

    She doesn’t mention her parent’s identities directly, but still references how they have been committed in helping her recover.

    Now that she has received help, she wants to continue to help others as well.

    “It’s just important for people to realize, anybody who is watching this, that if you’re suffering and if you’re depressed, you’re dealing with mental illness, and you think that it might have something to do with your drug abuse or drinking, or if you’re just suffering from both of those at the same time and you think that they’re completely unrelated to one another, getting sober is always a positive thing,” she said in the video.

    Image via Youtube, Chiara de Blasio