I’m getting a raise! Yay! OK, it’s not a big raise, but it’s something. Last night, the Mayor made a deal with the Union for 5% increases. This comes as a slight surprise as there had been no indications that a deal was forthcoming. The Mayor had previously taken a hard stance that there would be no raises without productivity improvements, and no retroactive raises. He backed away on both points. My guess is that he wants peace with the labor unions during his upcoming reelection campaign. His poll numbers have been improving and this might help. (Yes, there are negative parts of the deal. It’s less than the 8% increase given in 2001 and it reduces starting salaries for new hires) But all in all, something is better than nothing and up until this point I had been expecting nothing.