The city teachers union has taken its contract gripes into the blogosphere.

The United Federation of Teachers quietly unveiled a new Web site called Edwize over the weekend - joining the growing list of individuals and causes that use blogs to get out their messages.

The first few posts featured comments about salary disparities between teachers in the city and suburbs, and union President Randi Weingarten's comments from last week that the union and City Hall were unlikely to agree on a new contract before classes resume next month.

The blog suggested that Mayor Bloomberg was letting election year politics get in the way of negotiating a new contract for the city's 80,000 teachers.

"Politics and this year's election seem to be more important to Mayor Bloomberg than a contract for teachers," one post stated.

Bloomberg said last week that the city wanted to continue to negotiate with the union but claimed Weingarten had been hard to reach. Weingarten said she was on federal jury duty but had made herself available to the city's negotiating team.

A disclaimer billed the union blog as "a place where members, public education advocates and others can express opinions in an effort to establish an agora of informed commentary on public education and labor issues."

The blog, which can be found at www.edwize.org, does not represent the official views of the union, the disclaimer said, noting: "Anyone who claims otherwise is violating the spirit and purpose of this blog."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/339157p-289675c.html