results in on New York ELA tests

the results of this year's ELA tests for New York State were announced with great fanfare today, the fanfare mostly coming from the Bloomberg administration trumpeting large gains in fourth grade reading and writing.

here's the NYTimes' account of the story, which includes this curious graf:

Intriguingly, the city's largest gains - in Region 1 in the Bronx, and Region 5 covering impoverished stretches of east Brooklyn and south Queens - were in places where the school administration and the teachers' union maintain strong working relationships despite a long-simmer contract battle that has roiled relations at the highest levels on both sides.

why is this 'intriguing'? to me it's completely intuitive that in areas where the working relationships between teachers and the administration are strong, teachers are better able to focus on teaching and kids are better off. i'm baffled by the line of thinking that says that high achievement and a union contract are mutually exclusive. about 17 people have emailed/left on my desk a copy of this stupid article in the past couple of days. why? i don't get it.