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City contracts are compared
WORCESTER — It’s a rare year when all of the city’s major contracts get settled around the same time, and this year’s batch gave analysts the chance to compare teacher and public safety contracts side by side.
According to a report published this month by the Worcester Regional Research Bureau, when just the most recent contract is considered, teachers won a more generous agreement. While all four unions in the report — teachers, police officials, police patrolmen and firefighters — received at least a 2 percent pay raise as part of their contract, and patrolmen and firefighters will also received a 1 percent raise mid-year in fiscal 2013, teachers benefited from a new salary schedule designed to further reward longevity and advanced degrees. Leonard A. Zalauskas, head of the teachers union, the Educational Association of Worcester, said it all added up to an average of about 5 percent over four years, although the amount for individual teachers will vary.
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