Pocket calendar eliminated after more than a half century?...Chicago Teachers Union members facing more unpleasant surprises about the union leadership's lies and sellouts as another new school year begins...
Members of the Chicago Teachers Union returned to work on August 29, 2017, to learn that their union leaders still have not provided them with a printed book copy of the contract under which they are working. The "current" contract, which supposedly began on July 1, 2015, extends to June 30, 2019, thank to the last-minute rush to push the deal through the House of Delegates (with little debate) and a membership referendum (with many details left out) in October 2016.
But more surprises are in store for the union's 25,000 members, most of whom are paying more than $1,100 per year in union dues this school year: They will not be getting their union pocket calendars, thanks to the claim by the union's officers that the union is "broke" and couldn't afford to print them for the first time in more than a half century. Of course, the union was not too "broke" to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars during the summer of 2017 on "organizing" that has nothing to do with the contract, or on an "Organizing Department" that didn't exist at the time the current CTU leadership -- under the CORE caucus -- took office in July 2010.
Comments:
By: George N. Schmidt
CTU leaders lied and the members are paying...
How anyone can take seriously a claim that CTU members were "overpaid" under the "new" contract when nobody has a final copy of the actual contract is another mystery foisted on the members of the union by Karen Lewis, Jesse Sharkey, and those who railroaded through the Columbus Day sellout and then spent the past ten months explaining how the Boss in January, February, March, April, May, June, July and August 2017 has final say over the wording of a contract that was supposedly provided to the union delegates and members in October 2016.
Why anyone should trust anything the current CORE or CTU leadership says as school begins is a real question. Once people lie to you, you should stop trusting them. And the only word for the nonsense that has been "explained" about why the contracts are not in the hands of the members is that the leaders lied. Simple as that.
By: Edward F Hershey
Contract Books, Finally
George,
contract books finally came last week -- we got ours last Tuesday at Lindblom and passed them out on Friday.
-- Ed
By: Susan Zupan
No CPS calendars for students as well?
The annual start-of-year CPS packets we gave out to students at my elementary school this year did not contain the usual calendar for the students. The calendars have traditionally been full-sized, include a listing of all schools with location and contact information, and contain contact information for CPS offices. Is this the case elsewhere?
By: jo-anne Cairo
It was stated back in June at the CTU retirees meeting that here is no money for calendars
why don't they charge people for their advertisements in the books there are ways for revenue for the books to be produced
Even the calendars for the students. At the last HOD meeting calendars were missing from the packages. It seems the CTU elders have ignored what the retirees suggested
By: David R. Stone
Calendars
Yes, there are serious reasons to question CTU leadership, but let's not add to the rancor by harping on issues that have little or no impact on our working conditions. Why does Substance care so much about CTU's decision to stop publishing pocket-sized calendars? I and many teachers stopped using them, since we have electronic calendars on our phones.
The larger calendars for the students were always published by the Board, not the union. They were always sponsored with ads from a corporation such as Peoples Gas.
-David
By: Susan Hickey, LCSW
Uproar about over-payment memo
I came back from Ireland on August 30th to hear a number of complaints from clinicians but the loudest came on Friday concerning a communication concerning over-payment. Facebook is exploding with consternation over this with the lung Labor Day weekend for CTU members to fume over it. I have emailed CTU to get an explanation. Of course, people will have to wait until Tuesday to blow up the Payroll switchboard- if there is a way to call to fond out.
Here is the notification:
Re: Salary Overpayment
Dear Colleague:
During our implementation of the FY18 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in the CPS-CTU contract, we became aware that you are currently being paid an inaccurate annual salary that is higher than your current salary should be under the collective bargaining agreement with CTU. This issue likely originated during the period where CPS and CTU did not have an active contract and CPS continued using FY15 salary tables through FY16 and much of FY17.
Please note that CPS will not seek to recover any overpayments resulting from this inaccurate salary placement. However, we will need to correct your salary.
To correct your salary and cause as little disruption to you as possible, we have taken the following steps:
● We corrected your salary to the appropriate level, effective June 30, 2017.
(Again, no regular or summer payments already made to you will be requested back)
● We immediately applied the contractual COLA of 2% to your corrected June 30, 2017 salary. That is your new salary.
In your case, this will not result in a reduction in your pay, but it does mean that the percentage increase in your salary will appear to be less than 2%. Please know this is only because your prior salary was higher than the contract outlines, so the increase from FY17 to FY18 appears to be lower.
You can now view your new salary for this school year in HR4U. If you have questions regarding this salary adjustment, please submit an inquiry directly using this link, which is designed for this purpose specifically. You may also email the Talent Office at cpsstep@cps.edu.
Sincerely,
Lauren Clair-McClellan