Cost of Collective Bargaining

Jule Pattison Gordon, in the Bay State Banner, reveals some interesting facts about Boston’s monopoly bargaining practices in negotiations with teacher union officials.  The taxpayer takes on the cost of the bargaining and union political spending.

The Walsh administration’s 2018 fiscal year school budget includes about $20 million set       aside for costs associated with collective bargaining.

According to the Office of Campaign and Political Finance data, in the last two weeks of December 2016, a time when many donors max out their contributions to politicians, ten donors identifying themselves as police officers donated $1,900 to Mayor Martin Walsh. In that same period, just two people identifying themselves as BPS teachers donated $100 each to Walsh. The BPPA Political Action Committee had $369,709 in its coffers as of the Feb. 28 filing deadline with the state’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance. The BTU had $10,390 in the same filing period.