By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

DETROIT – Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith Johnson told the media Thursday, “This is a heavyweight fight we just started.”

But the fight has been over for weeks. The man the union wants to scrap with, Emergency Financial Manager Roy Roberts, won by knockout without entering the ring.

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Roberts recently used the broad powers provided to him under the emergency financial manager law to impose a new collective bargaining agreement on the DFT. The pact included the extension of a previous 10 percent pay cut for teachers, a reduction in maternity leave, an increase in prescription co-pays from $5 to $10 and the cancellation of “assault pay” for teachers hurt on the job.

Johnson and hundreds of teachers marched outside the Detroit Public Schools headquarters Thursday, chanting, “Come here, Roy Roberts, we want to bargain now,” according to a story published by the Detroit Free Press. But Roberts doesn’t have to bargain, because the contract has been imposed.

With a budget deficit hovering somewhere between $70 and $80 million, Roberts did what he had to do to help the financially stricken school district remain solvent.  The union is lucky that Roberts only extended the previous 10 percent pay cut, rather than imposing a further cut.

If Johnson and other union leaders want to know why the tough contract was imposed, all they have to do is look in the mirror. For years the DFT fought for and received higher wages and increasingly expensive benefits for teachers, even as the district’s budget deficit grew and layoffs and program cuts became annual events.

A recent EAGnews.org review of labor costs tied to the teachers union contract for the 2010-11 school year exposed a great deal of waste, even during a period of budget cutting and layoffs.

The labor contract forced the district to pay out $16 million in automatic, annual raises for teachers, $47.1 million for low-cost health insurance, $12.5 million for reimbursement for unused sick days, $4.1 million for teacher termination incentives, $665,000 for longevity bonuses, $434,000 for tuition reimbursement and $376,000 for class size overage pay.

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Union labor costs had become an unaffordable headache for Detroit Public Schools. Now those expenses are going to have to be rolled back to help the district survive and provide adequate programs for students.

The union wants to fight about it, but there’s nothing to fight over. The financial plan is in place, and teachers can choose to stick around and help rebuild the district or look for other work.