Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Comparison of the contracts of CTU, and Locals 1708 and 1600


The following analysis was submitted by Craig and coworkers. We reproduce it below in its entirety in a spirit of solidarity and with the hope that it will help clarify the state of affairs at the CCC and within the organizations that represent most of its employees. May this spark another round of discussion that will help us chart a way forward to rescue the CCC from the mouth of sharks.

PEARL

IS THE NEW LOCAL 1600 CONTRACT A GOOD DEAL?

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

As a concerned group of loyal union members, over the past few months we have learned a great deal about the recently signed CCC contracts. After the vote, we realized that we had cast our ballots (some in favor; some against the contract) based upon very limited and contradictory information. For that reason we decided to find out what the truth was. 

We learned from Dr. Bruno’s contract meeting at Morton College that good contract negotiation results are a reflection of fact-finding and tough collective bargaining. Our research unearthed many concerning issues that sadly we were unaware of. Our research concluded that Local 1600 union president Perry Buckley was either unaware of the issues below, or unconcerned by them, or both. 

President Buckley signed agreements for both the Faculty and Professional City Colleges contracts nearly one year in advance of their expiration.  (Both contracts expire in July of 2013).

Just weeks before signing the contracts, Mr. Buckley retired and secured his own benefits from CCC: an impressive annual retirement salary (Pension + Union Salary combined of more than $300,000.00 annually) and a generous sick day payout (sick days amounting to more than $200,000.00).

Below we will compare three contractual results, and where applicable, include administrators.  These contractual agreements were all completed around the same time as follows:

Local 1708                                    June 7, 2012

Local 1600                                    August 23, 2012        

Local 1 CTU                                October 2, 2012


Much appreciation to all those who assisted in helping us gather and interpret the information we present below.   
LOCAL 1708 VS.  LOCAL 1600:

Local 1600’s sister union at City Colleges of Chicago is Local 1708, a union of Clerical workers.  Local 1708’s last contract ended in June of 2010.  Their union leaders then held out in firm negotiations against the City Colleges’ district lawyers for 24 months.  In comparison, Mr. Buckley held out for… almost one day.  In the end, Local 1708’s contract had Higher Raises, No Merit Pay, No loss of Earned Sick Days, and No Wellness program.  


CITY COLLEGES                           CITY COLLEGES
Clerical Union 1708                           Faculty & Professional Union 1600

RAISES COMPARED:

RAISES FOR 1708 MEMBERS   VS.         RAISES FOR 1600 MEMBERS
2011     3.5%                                                                      2014    2.5 %
2012     3.0                                                                         2015    2.5
2013     3.5                                                                         2016    2.5
2014     3.5                                                                         2017    2.5
2015     3.5                                                                         2018    2.5

LOCAL 1600 RAISES: 2.5%— These raises are just above the rate of inflation.  The US inflation rate for 2012 stands at an average of 2.12%.   The 2.5% “raise” is, for all intents and purposes, a wage freeze.  When you add in the loss of sick day payouts and step increases, all members have now experienced a tremendous and career-long wage cut. 



MERIT/SUCCESS PAY:

Merit pay is an effort by educational reformers to pay teachers based on student performance.  Teachers would be paid according to factors such as student grades, test scores, graduation rates and related outcomes. Cheating and social promotion are rife in K-12 systems where this is the standard of compensation.
CTU Local 1:                    REJECTED MERIT / SUCCESS PAY

Local 1708:                    REJECTED MERIT / SUCCESS PAY

CCC Administrators:           DO NOT HAVE MERIT / SUCCESS PAY

Local 1600:                    ACCEPTED MERIT / SUCCESS PAY

The Chicago Tribune celebrated Mr. Buckley’s acceptance of Merit Pay in:
Revealed:  The Chicago Teachers’ Pact, September 5, 2012

Chicago Tribune:  Perhaps best of all: Under the new contract, merit pay will reward educators for improvements in student performance. No, no, it's not the teachers in Chicago Public Schools (CTU  Local 1) who have this new contract. We're describing the pact covering 1,483 union faculty, training staff and other professionals at the City Colleges of Chicago. The announcement came Saturday from system Chancellor Cheryl Hyman and Perry Buckley, president of Cook County Teachers Union Local 1600.”
The Merit Pay he accepted was semantically transformed into “Student Success Pay”.  This means we might be paid a few extra dollars if we inflate our grades substantially enough so that some of the District’s “student success” standards are met.  Such student success standards are highly unattainable. Among them are:

* Students who transfer within 3 years (must reach 25% from current 14%)

* Students employed in the occupational area of their training (must reach 90%)

*Median earnings of CCC grads in the area of their training must reach a minimum of $43,398  (Note: Full- time working U.S. COLLEGE graduates ages 21-24 with a B.A. degree earned an average of $34,965 in 2011)

See figure J:  Economic Policy Institute: “The Class of 2012”
Mr. Buckley also agreed to “Draft an MOU for a Joint CCC-union committee to address all issues related to Student Success Pay, including ‘Discuss additional ways to measure individual merit, such as assessments that go across the departments.’” 


LOSS OF STEPS AND COMPRESSION OF LANES:

We at Local 1600 have always had a contract with lanes and steps that reward greater education and experience with higher pay.  We advance in lanes by achieving more education.  We advance in steps by gaining additional years of service. Our salaries rise with each step or lane increase.  Local 1708’s contract has grades and steps that operate in a similar fashion.  CTU Local 1 has a contract with lanes and steps that resemble our own soon to expire contract.  

CTU Local 1:           RETAINED LANE AND STEP INCREASES FOR ALL EMPLOYEES

Local 1708:           RETAINED GRADE AND STEP INCREASES FOR CURRENT  EMPLOYEES 
(New hires will no longer move through the steps).

Local 1600:           LANES REDUCED. LOSS OF STEP INCREASES
FOR ALL EMPLOYEES

The eradication of our steps and reduction of lanes was included in the contract for no reason other than to reduce our salaries substantially over our careers. The end result was to cut CCC’s payroll expenses dramatically. 


WELLNESS PROGRAM:

The danger of employer-required wellness programs is that employees can be penalized for not meeting the employer’s ideal of “wellness”.  This could mean being required to “quit smoking” or “lose weight” as examples.  CTU, in agreeing to a wellness program, demanded that there be no penalty for smoking, or for failing to meet any “health outcomes” the city might come up with.  CTU agreed only that their members would submit to an annual physical, and that this information would be kept confidential.  Local 1708 rejected a wellness program entirely.  In contrast, Mr. Buckley accepted a wellness program, but without limitations.  We are now essentially subject to the whims of the District Office in this matter. 

CTU Local 1:           ACCEPTED WELLNESS PROGRAM BUT WITH SPECIFIC MEMBER-FRIENDLY GUIDELINES AND LIMITATIONS     


Local 1708:           REJECTED WELLNESS PROGRAM

SEE Local 1708 Contract Article IX (M) http://apps.ccc.edu/brpublic/2012/june/31456.pdf

“In the event a Wellness Program is created for another bargaining unit, said Wellness program will become available to Local 1708.”

(This now means any Local 1708 member can use the Wellness program Local 1600 has agreed to if a member freely chooses to participate in it)

Local 1600:           ACCEPTED WELLNESS PROGRAM WITH NO GUIDELINES OR LIMITATIONS WHATSOEVER


SICK DAY PAYOUTS:

City Colleges Administrators can keep the sick days that they have already earned and cash them out when they retire. Local 1708 can keep the sick days that they have earned and cash them out when they retire.  CTU Local 1 can keep the sick days that they have earned and cash them out when they retire.  Only Local 1600 members must give up all earned sick day cash payouts.   


CTU Local 1:              KEPT SICK DAY PAYOUTS

Local 1708:             KEPT SICK DAY PAYOUTS

CCC Administrators:           KEPT SICK DAY PAYOUTS

Local 1600:           GAVE AWAY SICK DAY PAYOUTS


Mr. Buckley gave away ALL Local 1600 Sick Day Payouts for ALL Professionals and Faculty who cannot retire by July 2014.    (We earned this money from decades of hard work. Upon retirement, each of us cashes out an average of $100,000.00). CCC has about 1,500 Local 1600 members.  The sick day payouts that we lost are conservatively valued at over $100,000,000.00--One Hundred Million--dollars. 


CTU LOCAL 1 MEMBERS KEEP THEIR SICK DAY PAYOUTS:

CTU LOCAL 1 MEMBERS CAN CASH OUT ALL Sick Days earned as of October 2012 into perpetuity.

CTU Local 1 Tentative Agreement (see page 10 Article 37)

Article 37—New CTU Contract Agreement October 2, 2012:
“Old sick day banks are protected and can be used as they have always been used.  They can be cashed out upon retirement.”


LOCAL 1708 MEMBERS KEEP THEIR SICK DAY PAYOUTS:

LOCAL 1708 MEMBERS CAN CASH OUT ALL Sick Days earned as of July 2014 into perpetuity.


Article 9 (I) New Local 1708 Contract Agreement June 7, 2012:
“Local 1708 Employees hired before June 7, 2012 may accrue unlimited sick leave, but the payout is capped at the amount accrued as of July 1, 2014”


CCC ADMINISTRATORS KEEP THEIR SICK DAY PAYOUTS:  

CCC ADMINISTRATORS CAN CASH OUT UP TO 200 Sick Days earned as of July 2012 into perpetuity.

CCC New Board of Trustees Ruling May 3, 2012:
“The number of sick days that can be paid to employees upon retirement will be capped at the number of days accumulated by July 1, 2012, or upon the date of retirement, whichever number is less, not to exceed 200 days.”


LOCAL 1600 MEMBERS LOSE ALL SICK DAY PAYOUTS AS OF JULY 2014:

WE LOCAL 1600 MEMBERS NOW HAVE A ZERO $(0) SICK DAY PAYOUT FOR ALL OF US WHO DO NOT RETIRE BY JULY 2014.

Note:  We Local 1600 members went on Strike in 1971 for nearly 30 days to gain the sick day payouts that we have maintained in our contracts for 31 years.

MR. BUCKLEY GAVE AWAY ALL OF OUR SICK DAY PAYOUTS IN ONE DAY FOR NOTHING IN RETURN.  

PROCESS:

About a week before this offer was put to us for a vote, Mr. Buckley came to our colleges for the opening union meetings of Fall semester. At our meetings, he stated emphatically that he would absolutely support a strike rather than accept the contractual changes listed above. 

Days later, Mr. Buckley mailed a letter to us dictating that a vote on a proposed contract must take place immediately.  In this letter he forced upon us an unreasonable and arbitrary timeline of a few days—at the start of the semester—to vote on this critical contract that would impact the rest of our careers.  We were neither afforded adequate time to assess the impacts of the proposal, nor to confirm the statements made by Mr. Buckley in support of the proposal.
Mr. Buckley then came to our colleges campaigning “THIS IS THE BEST POSSIBLE DEAL THAT YOU WILL EVER GET.”  He told us that if we did not agree to it—the ONLY other alternative would be to lose absolutely everything in our contracts.

He told us “faculty will lose tenure* if we reject these contracts” and that “CCC Administrators and Local 1708 had already given up all of their sick day payouts” and that “all CCC employees now have to participate in the Wellness program.”  


* Our Tenure is Guaranteed by Illinois State Law in the Community college Tenure Act of 1980:



As a result of these and other misrepresentations, we were led to believe we didn’t have any other choice but to agree to the contracts.  We now know that this was not the case.  
  
We now also know that the forced timeline was designed exclusively to compel our submission. We were not told the truth about these contracts. We were deceived and we voted under threat and out of fear.

EXCLUSION OF OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES:

Mr. Buckley completely and deliberately excluded all of our elected representatives from these contract “negotiations”.  He shut out City Colleges Vice President Rochelle Dukes, and all seven elected Chapter Chairs.

What was the motivation behind removing all of our elected union leaders from the process? Why was Mr. Buckley the only Local 1600 representative present when this “deal” was cut?



CO-OPTATION:

Who did Mr. Buckley strike this deal with? He admitted to us freely that he struck this deal with the Mayor. This deal was supposedly an attempt to compel CTU President Karen Lewis to concede just as Mr. Buckley did. 

Mr. Buckley told us “this great deal was being offered to stop CTU from striking.” He said we must decide within 3 days of receiving the proposal so that the vote would occur before the CTU strike date. CTU leaders have since stated that the Local 1600 contract was a travesty and played no role at all in their decision to strike.

In retrospect, we now know the 3-day window was simply designed to deny us the opportunity to make an informed decision. We could not make an informed decision on this critical and complicated matter in 3 days.  It was even more impossible when we could not rely on the information presented to us. 

The Local 1600 contract offer was handled by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s brother-in-law Laurent Pernot “Vice Chancellor of Institutional Advancement”at 226 W. Jackson. 
http://www.ccc.edu/departments/Pages/Institutional-Advancement.aspx   (One Chapter Chair who did support the contract was Daley College’s Todd Lakin whose wife Tania Brewster is on Laurent Pernot’s staff).

The Mayor’s brother-in-law, Laurent Pernot, presented the offer to Cheryl Hyman who then gave it to Mr. Buckley who signed it immediately. He did not negotiate for a single change. He did not seek the consent or agreement of a single elected leader of CCC’s membership.  

Why did Mr. Buckley agree to all of this? Why did he work so hard to sell it to us?  We do not know all of the reasons. What we do know is that he had already secured his financial future, and would not need to adapt to any of the aftermath including: the open-ended wellness program, merit/ success pay, eradication of raises, loss of sick day payouts, and the removal of steps and lanes.

28 comments:

  1. God Bless You, Pearl.

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  2. Hi. I'm Todd Lakin. Who wrote this tripe? Who is the masked man, "Pearl?" Or who wrote this diatribe? At least I put my name out there and outlined exactly why I supported the contract. Also my wife's first name is spelled "Twania." So get your facts straight and let us know who you are.

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  3. Todd, what did Randy Barnett offer you to write this response?

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  4. Todd has been rewarded with a trip to Washington DC Leadership Conference this weekend with Perry Buckley

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    Replies
    1. (My apologies for posting "Anonymous" as I couldn't get my Google Account to work properly. This is Todd Lakin.)

      As I stated at the Union House Delegate meeting on Friday, January 18, the AFT Special Leadership Conference which I attended the previous weekend was not a “reward” but rather an opportunity for training and networking with other AFT current and future leaders. Nearly the entire weekend was spent in the windowless lower level of the hotel in meetings. Some reward!

      Below is a list of all CCCTU attendees and the years that they attended. Pre-2004 Norm nominated them; post-2004 it has been Perry.

      Mel Anderson, Cook County College Teachers Union (2005)
      Verna Anderson, Cook County College Teachers Union (1998)
      Judith Armstead, Cook County College Teachers Union (Jan. 1999)
      Debra Baker, Cook County College Teachers Union (2008)
      Perry Buckley, Cook County Coll. Teachers Union (May 2001, 2002, 2004)
      Patricia Cooks, Cook County College Teachers Union (May 2001)
      Arlicia Corley, Cook County College Teachers Union (2007)
      Thomas Dowd, Cook County College Teachers Union (2010)
      Dennis Dryzga, Cook Co. College Teachers Union (1998, Nov. 1999)
      David Dwyer, Cook County College Teachers Union (2006)
      Paul J. Janus, Cook County College Teachers Union (Nov. 1999)
      Mary M. Jeans, Triton College Mid-Management Assn. Chapter, CCCTU (Nov. 2001)
      Anthony Johnston, Cook County College Teachers Union (2006)
      Delwyn Jones, Cook County College Teachers Union (2013)
      Tom Kodogeorgiou, Cook County College Teachers Union (2004)
      Todd Lakin, Cook County College Teachers Union (2013)
      Linda Murphy, Cook County College Teachers Union (2008)
      Charles Mustari, Cook County College Teachers Union (2010)
      James O’Malley, Cook County College Teachers Union (2004)
      George Otto, Cook Co. College Teachers Union (Nov. 2001)
      Sonia Powell, Cook County College Teachers Union (2003)
      Donald Radtke, Cook County College Teachers Union (2003)
      David Richmond, Cook County College Teachers Union (2009)
      Rochelle Robinson-Dukes, Cook County College Teachers Union (2009)
      William Stewart, Jr., Cook County College Teachers Union (2007)
      Jillian Verstrate, Cook County College Teachers Union (2005)
      Pat Wenthold, Cook County College Teachers Union (2003)
      Jeanette Williams, Kennedy King College Chapter, CCCTU (2002)
      Gail Wiot, Cook County College Teachers Union (2004)

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  5. Can you site where the CCC student success goals come from, particularly the income for CCC graduates

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  6. why wasn't the 2010 0% raise not included in the wage equation.

    1708 has a 6 year contract where the first year they received nothing in wage increase which changes those numbers in comparison to 1600.

    Also isnt the average salary of local 1600 members far greater than that of local 1708 making their increases smaller in comparison.

    last thing 1600 has raises for the part-time members but 1708 has yet to resolve their part-time members with not so much a word.

    I have to say that without the merit pay we do better than admins, local 1708 and recieve the same rates as CTU local 1.

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  7. Re. Anonymity: that may take more courage than you realize or admit, even in our free society. It's rumored that a number of union members, rank and file as well as loca-lwide and chapter officers of Local 1600, apparently have reason to fear retaliation from a vindictive element in the leadership.

    There have been a number of candidates curiously dropped from or added to our elections slates in recent contests. There have been outspoken activists chastized publicly. There have been supremely talented union activists removed from important offices.

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  8. Like most by now, I have read this blog entry several times so I will let my words be few and seasoned with grace.

    I am beginning to feel that if this is true then we are part of an epic leadership failure of a Jim Jones proportion. I am aware of the larger picture to dismantle the working class, e.g. Right to Work initiatives, poverty pimps, covert Democrats, etc. So no, I am not fond nor surprised by the leadership tactics of City Colleges of Chicago nor the Office of the Mayor because they demonstrate repeatedly they are systematically removed, wallow in cognitive dissonance in their aspirations for plutocracy, and very simply do not love ALL of the people they serve. But I am clearly most adjacent to CCCTU Union Local 1600. I am Grievance Chair for my MXC Chapter, a tenured faculty member, and love ALL of the people that I serve.

    Now, I am never one to be a blind follower --my father, a sharecropper from Mississippi, would rise from his cremated ashes and thrash me. If any of what was said is a lie then please share information to refute any parts of what was stated. The more authentic that information source then the better I will feel because, at this point, my confidence and patience with our leadership is beginning to wane. I am not alone.

    I am now thinking that If you (Perry, Randi, etc.) really did do this in any part then what is the Local 1600 leadership (including those solicited or promised in-waiting) are doing in Springfield regarding our pensions? Do you too suffer from cognitive dissonance, aspirations of plutocracy, and an innate lack of love for ALL the people you serve?

    Now, I honestly do not care about the anonymity because it is a voice that wants to be heard. For all intent and purposes, I am posting without anonymity for I TOO AM PEARL and I have not an ax to grind but would also like to be heard.

    Seeking information to sustain solidarity --CMWP

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  9. This could all be true -- but we voted on it. Most of the bad stuff was clear from the start - so why did we vote in favor of this?

    What concerns me now is that the adjuncts are out there on their own. The administration is trying to force terrible cuts on them. Why are they alone in this? When are we going to learn the true meaning of a union? Can we please go and negotiate together next time? You know - in solidarity.....

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  10. We voted on it because we were rushed,lacked a detailed copy, and trusted Perry Buckley

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  11. No, it was voted for because the faculty didn't think it through. The exact same thing happened at the end of the 2004 strike. There was a long line of people who were ready to vote on the contract before they knew anything about it. They had to be told to sit down so we could go over the details.

    If you are upset with your vote then you should be more careful next time.

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  12. If someone posts anonymously, it's probably because they're afraid of retribution from 1600 - not because they lack courage.

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  13. So they are afraid but it is not because lack courage...and you people are supposed to be college professors?
    You should give your salary back not get a raise.

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  14. Perhaps it's time for the Local leadership to do some serious soul-searching about how it can best serve the members while maintaining professionalism and a truly representative/democratic organization. Here's one small suggestion: the Local should email the detailed House meeting agenda and complete officer reports(including all motions that they plan to bring to the floor & related rationale) ten days to 2 weeks before each meeting. The current practice of handing out materials in the minutes before the meeting starts does not allow for adequate review and consideration of the content.

    P.S. These comments are not meant to imply that all the Local leaders and professional staff need to improve-- many of them (you know who you are) have consistently demonstrated solidarity with the membership and an openness to problem solving and serving the membership in a fair and evenhanded manner. Your efforts do not go unnoticed- thank you!

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  15. I appreciate the information shared, regardless of whom it came from. I feel deceived by perry and many other Local 1600 leaders as there has been no transparency of the roles that they are playing and their family memebers are playing. So often perry talked/talks about how others cashed out on sick pay but never did/or has he shared his HUGE pay-out. This sounds like a lot of backroom deals, kept secrets, and throwing families under the bus! What's worst is that many of the Local 1600 leaders are resorting to insults and other ignorant comments... the truth is out now about your actions and cover-ups. Talk about the message not the messager!

    At this point and in moving forward how do we 1. Rescind the contract and 2. Change leaders for Local 1600?

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  16. In response to this article: this makes Buckley sound like a sellout, a heartless sob and a poor negotiator to boot, even for himself. If he is taking away a conservative estimate of 100 million dollars from us in sick day pay and he only gets a maximum 200k plus pension (300k* 50 if he lived 50 Years! totaling 15.2 million). Essentially he sold out 1500+ people to get 15%. Lousy even for him. Though I cant speak to his reputation as I am relatively new.

    While I can't say this for everyone I think its a safe assumption that when faced with using a sick day or losing the day all together American consumerist culture will dictate choosing in favor of value and take days off that would otherwise result in more staff at colleges to help our students. This deal is absolutely contradictory to our mission in supporting our students we serve and its the trademark of a corporation, not an educational institution.

    I would like to make a statement that I strongly encourage everyone else to abide by: "NEVER sign or vote on something that you cannot read!" All bargaining power is lost if you have already submitted. By demanding an immediate vote to a not yet existing document Buckley has successfully convinced many of the local 1600 members that they have to take ownership of this new contract even though deception and intimidation were used in securing it, trickery to put it simply. This is not the case and this does not have to be our contract. This is indeed an urgent high court matter and definitely should be pursued. As mentioned I am fairly new but I would offer my services in helping however I can. This is important.


    I know this is some a reiteration of what Pearl stated but I had to put in my two cents.

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  17. Get information.
    Sustain solidarity.
    And let's move forward.

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  18. I wanted to say thank you to Todd Lakin and CM Winters for speaking publicly at Local 1600 about their posts here and their opinions. I was impressed at their calm and reasoned statements and believe Todd was right to defend himself from the slander posted here. I am not a City Colleges faculty or staff member so I cannot adequetly speak to the issues here as I do not know how your contract process works (i.e. negotiating for all City Colleges instead of one school). But like others have said here, rather than casting acusations, take this concern and funnel it into something constructive (like solutions). I understand the writer of this blog wanted to raise concerns but it hardly seems the most constructive way when you do it for the world to see and spend time casting blame and posting your personal inuendos about people. If you want to know how things happened investigate it before jumping to your own conclusions.

    Finally, my only real concern with PEARL is that how do I know it is even a member of Local 1600? Here we are infighting publicly, something I'm sure some folks outside the Union will enjoy. These debates should be handled with other members in a forum appropriate for those debates. Thus why we have Chapter Chairs, Delegates and a House Meeting. Far from squashing debate I think this brings it up in a place and way that gets others involved in positive ways and provides transperency.

    If people are concerned with transerency than that transperency cuts both way.

    I'll borrow CM's comment above as it's stated more eloquntely than I could state:

    CM Winters PalacioJanuary 18, 2013 at 12:47 AM
    Get information.
    Sustain solidarity.
    And let's move forward.

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  19. Those who Comment and sign themselves as "Anonymous" do not deserve to be read; no Union is strenghtened by irresponsibility. Your Leadership will never improve with such "opposition."

    JimKozicki
    DaleyCollegeRetiree2003

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  20. Hopefully, Perry will let us know soon why he agreed to this contract because his original reasons no longer make sense.

    James M.
    City Colleges of Chicago

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    Replies
    1. Now we know. He retired and got a huge payout!

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  21. We have been observing with concern the direction that Local 1600 has taken in the past several years. More recently, we were deeply troubled and dismayed by the damaging turn of events that took place in late August. A weak and concession riddled contract for City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) was unnecessarily being foisted upon the membership. In response, we took a stand against the CCC tentative agreement. At Harold Washington College, the chapter leadership (Jesu and Hector) spoke out and organized against the tentative agreement. Since the passage of the CCC contract we have had countless conversations with fellow unionists who are dissatisfied with the state of the union.

    We believe that it is time for a new, untainted leadership. Moreover, we also recognize that merely switching around the faces that are in leadership is not enough. We need to literally (re)form our union. A strong and effective union needs transparency and democracy, and must work to serve the needs of every segment of the membership (faculty, professionals, classified staff, security guards, city and suburb chapters, veterans and newcomers alike).

    Furthermore, we don’t exist in a vacuum. The national, state-wide and local contexts in which we educate have been deteriorating for years. The defense of genuinely public education must be understood as an essential priority to be fought for alongside our union rights. The business model of education and the business model of unionism need to be opposed in tandem. As our fellow educators in the CTU so aptly put it during the CPS strike of 2012:

    “Educator Working Conditions Are Student Learning Conditions.”

    You can read analyses written by us about the disastrous City Colleges contract here (http://www.scribd.com/doc/122350635/Cross-Currents-of-Defeat-and-Victory) and here (http://academeblog.org/2012/09/13/forced-to-the-edge-the-city-colleges-of-chicago-contract/).

    If you want to join with us (as activist or supporter) and work toward the goals described above, please email the following address so we can contact you once an event is being planned: newdirection1600@gmail.com. (Please indicate your college and any elective position that you hold.)

    In solidarity,

    Maria "Jesú" Estrada, Chapter Chair, Harold Washington College
    Héctor Reyes, Assistant Chapter Chair, Harold Washington College
    Sean Noonan, Assistant Chapter Chair, Harper College
    Tony Johnston, Chapter Chair, Truman College
    Anne Abasolo, Chapter Secretary, Harper Faculty
    Sydney Hart, Wright College
    Sheldon Leibman, Wright College
    Jessi Choe, Wright College
    Judi Nitsch, Harper College
    Jessica L. Walsh, Faculty Senator, Harper College
    Jacquelyn Mott, Harper College
    Karyn Collymore-Chalmers, Harold Washington College
    Molly Turner, Harold Washington College
    Debbie Miles, Harold Washington College
    James Gramlich, Faculty Senator Harper College
    Sunil Koswatta, Faculty Senator, Harper College
    Susan Garza, Harold Washington College
    Elizabeth Greer, Harold Washington College
    Rachel Sledd Iannantuoni, Harold Washington College
    Suzanne Sheridan, Harold Washington College
    Augusthy Kulakkattolickal, Harold Washington College
    Mary Levenson, Harold Washington College
    John Cahill, Harold Washington College

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  22. Thank you, all. I look forward to follow up and the follow through.

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  23. Is the new contract available online?

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  24. I don't believe so. (Or, at best, I haven't seen any URLs.) Copies of the new contracts may be available only in .pdf format.

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  25. It is a crime that we are forced to pay dues to Perry Buckley and his political hack Randy Barnett. They represent themselves only.

    R. Johnson, Asst. Professor

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