Supreme Court lets ruling on BTF stand


The nation’s highest court has refused to review a case involving Buffalo teachers’ fight to lift a wage freeze, meaning that the three-year-old freeze will stay in place.

The executive director of Buffalo’s state-appointed control board said the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to let stand an appeals court ruling upholding the wage freeze has made this an important legal case.

“This, having played out all the way through the courts, becomes a landmark case,” Dorothy A. Johnson said Wednesday.

The point was reinforced by A. Vincent Buzzard, the Rochester attorney hired by the control board to fight the numerous legal challenges initiated by unions.

“This case is really the leading case in the country on wage freezes,” Buzzard said.

But the head of the teachers union downplayed the high court’s decision, saying attorneys are working on a new legal challenge.

“We don’t give up that easily,” said Buffalo Teachers Federation President Philip Rumore. “We’re looking at another federal court case that will be based on the improved fiscal conditions of the city and the [school] district.”

The Supreme Court on Monday denied a request by the BTF and other school district unions that justices review a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling from December. The highest federal court in the district upheld the control board’s wage freeze for city teachers and other school district employees.

The appeals court rejected union arguments that the wage freeze is unconstitutional. The court concluded that in some circumstances, a wage freeze is a reasonable tool in grappling with a municipal crisis.

“We felt our case was very strong and that we were operating within the legal framework of the State of New York,” Johnson said.

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