I Love New York

New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio at a rally organized by the National Association of Letter Carriers as part of their “Delivering For America” campaign (to save six day mail delivery).

Wait and see union politics has leadership singing “I Love New York” all the way to the bank. Union leaders are cashing in their chips thanks to Mayor Bill de Blasio. More from The WSJ’s Review and Outlook:

Unions refused to negotiate for five years with former mayor Michael Bloomberg, and their refusal has paid off. Union chief Michael Mulgrew stood next to Mr. de Blasio in announcing a new contract and said he couldn’t “thank the mayor enough.”

And no wonder. The deal includes an 8% retroactive raise plus a 10% cumulative bump from 2013 through 2018. The 19.5% compounded pay increase will boost the starting salary to $54,411 from $45,530 and the maximum to $119,565 from $100,049. Teachers will also get a $1,000 signing bonus for approving the contract that rewards their recalcitrance.

The raises will cost the city $5.5 billion, and Mr. de Blasio is touting some $1.3 billion in savings from health care. But the contract includes no employee contributions for premiums, though most American workers pay 20% to 30% of their health costs. The specific cuts will be determined later, which may mean never.

E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

E.J. Smith is the Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention. E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com. Sign up here to receive all the best content from Richardcyoung.com each week.