Why the negotiations broke off? Contract forum by CTU... Report on CTU-CPS Contract Negotiations - Community Forum
A report on the CTU contract negotiations prepared by Labor Beat is now available on YouTube at: http://youtu.be/1MxMtQ_tcig. The June 26, 2015 announcement that contract talks have been broken off makes this video more important today.
On June 26, 2015 contract negotiations broke down between the CTU and CPS. Earlier, in May, the teachers union held a series of community forums to talk about how the negotiations were going at that point. We give here excerpts from a presentation by CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey at a forum on the north side on May 19. Seven members of the 50-member CTU negotiating team also attended the public meeting.
"We think the negotiations are going poorly," explained Vice President Sharkey. "They [CPS] hoped that the union would be forced to give concessions as they relate to the working conditions in the school, the treatment of its employees, that we'll be forced to give up on many of our demands because Springfield will impose harsh austerity, perhaps take away rights through the legislative process and the governor can get that as part of the grand bargaining. As a result, we think there is sort of a lack of impulse on their part to bargain seriously with us as long as there's a boogeyman waiting for us downstate as part of the legal process."
"We think the Chicago public schools are broke on purpose...We think that quite deliberately they left large amounts of revenue on the table, and if there's a revenue crisis by the board, it's by endeavor." Sharkey pointed out that the Board has made no attempt to legally challenge bad swaps, or to look at the big TIF surplus. "The powerful people who run this district, the appointed members of the Board, haven't made a peep about a progressive income tax...They'll tax casinos, they'll tax grandma when she cashes her social security check, but they won't tax the people who want to gamble on financial transactions."
Watch the rest of the excerpts at the link above . Length - 6:40
CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey at May contract forum. Photo: Larry Duncan / Labor Beat
Community members hear the reports from CTU bargaining committee, and
participate in discussion at contract forum. Photo: Larry Duncan / Labor Beat
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CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION BULLETIN June 27 updating the contract situation...
No Deal
BY CTU COMMUNICATIONS | 06/25/2015
CHICAGO�Today, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) said negotiations with the Chicago Board of Education have not produced a one-year agreement and that talks are at a standstill. CTU President Karen Lewis, speaking during a briefing with reporters said: �We have not reached an agreement with the Board of Education. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) refuses to budge on our contract proposals that will have no cost impact on the district. Initially, we thought we might be close to a deal, but today we have found out that their bargaining rhetoric is as empty as their bank accounts.
ILLUSTRATION: Contract briefing screenshot
�What we�re asking for speaks to the very heart of our profession�which is being able to provide high-quality education for our district's 400,000-plus students. Instead of making a deal with us, they�ve made threats�threats to terminate 3,000 educators; threats to increase our class sizes; threats to eliminate our pension pick-up; and threats to enforce another $200 million worth of cuts.
�We are insulted by these punitive proposals and corporate-driven directives from CPS. We are professional educators who have been asked to work 20 percent longer with 20 percent fewer resources.
�We are clear that CPS is broke on purpose and their fiscal crisis, though of their own making, is real. That is why we are negotiating for meaningful solutions to the corporate-sponsored policies that make our jobs difficult. This isn�t about money, this is about standing up for what is right in pedagogy and for what is right for our students and their families.
�We want the autonomy to properly grade and an end to countless, unnecessary testing; more counselors, nurses, social workers and other clinicians in our school buildings to help students deal with environmental stresses (such as poverty, homelessness and violence that hinder learning); and we want the cuts to special education to end. The Board refuses to even discuss progressive revenue options that are available to provide long-term solutions to their self-created fiscal crisis. Why? If they are cash strapped, then why won�t they look into these options at all?
"While we are willing to remain at the bargaining table and our talks will eventually resume, right now these negotiations have broken. This is not about the money�this is about the working and learning conditions in our school buildings. We have said repeatedly that we are willing to compromise on raises if we can be assured we can have the tools necessary to provide a high-quality education for children.
�Our contract expires next Tuesday and if no agreement is in place we will remain under our old agreement.�
