At the
beginning of March, the members of Local 1708, which represents the clerical
and technical workers at all City Colleges, voted to accept a contract for
full-time employees that severely erodes the pay, benefits and job security of
these workers. It didn’t need to be this way. They had fought a valiant fight since June 30, 2010 when their
contract expired. For those 20 months they worked without a contract, their
wages frozen. On June 30, 2011, their part-time brothers and sisters also saw
their contract expire, and their wages frozen too. Yet, they held steady,
refusing to accept what was an unbelievable offer by the CCC administration: a
five-year contract with no pay raises and hefty increases in their healthcare
premiums.
Then things
came to a head by the end of February. 1708 had had it. Federal mediation was
going nowhere, and the administration continued its stubborn stance. 1708
attempted to declare an impasse and their intention to strike. Then came in a
new player, from within the realm of smoke and mirrors.
Fade in:
the Chicago Federation of Labor
As 1708
grappled with the possibility of going on strike in a few days, the Chicago
Federation of Labor (CFL) intervened. They told 1708 to sit tight, while they
approached the Mayor. Their conditions: that 1708 did not polarize things and
that it did not criticize the Reinvention. What planet do these folks live in?
Polarize things? Things were polarized already by a recalcitrant administration
intent on imposing a five-year wage freeze on 1708. All 1708 was doing was
calling things the way they were, defending themselves. And to have the gall to
demand that the Reinvention not be criticized clearly exposes where the idea
originally came from. From an administration that has openly espoused a
practice in which the only message allowed about the Reinvention is the message
of the administration. A 100 percent control—nothing less. Wouldn’t Stalinist
Russia be proud? What are they so afraid of?
It is
despicable for the CFL to demand that 1708 did not criticize the Reinvention
when everything that was being inflicted on the union’s membership was done in
the name of Reinvention.
Thus rather
than getting ready to gather forces to support 1708’s fight as a portent of
things to come, the CFL pressured 1708 into accepting a rotten deal. A six-year
contract in which the first two years still remain as a frozen wage period
(going back to July, 2010), with annual raises of between 3 and 3.5 percent for
the remainder of the contract; increases in the healthcare premiums as high as
15 percent for family coverage; the introduction of a union buster: two-tier
wage scales, so new hires will make less than their counterparts.
Even worse,
with such an exacting contract, the part-timers are now sitting ducks. This
became painfully true once the full-timers approved their contract, for a no
strike clause keeps them from striking in support of the part-timers. One thing
would have been to have won a successful contract; the benefits of which would
have spilled onto the part-timers. But as things stand now the part-timers lost
most of their leverage. Not only will the terms of any potential contract look
gloomy, but these will come back to haunt the full-timers. Why? Because the
wonders of Reinvention have made it possible to vanish many 1708 full-time
positions or to turn them into part-time positions. And more of this is yet to
come. The corporate hacks at 226 West Jackson are not finished yet
restructuring the colleges.
The
consequences of this rotten deal for the rest of the CCC unions are ominous.
Thanks, but no thanks CFL. With friends like these who needs enemies. This
should serve as a warning to the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) in their struggle
against another recalcitrant, corporate-drunk administration, that of CPS.
Another
script was possible
It is
important to emphasize that the 3 to 3.5 percent that 1708 indeed got for part
of their contract did not come out of thin air. What was on the cards was not
higher than 1 to 1.5 percent per year. It was the determination of 1708, and
their willingness to go on strike if necessary, that made the CCC bosses aware
that they could not get away with an absolute rout. It was this determination
what the CFL came in to deflate in the name of pragmatism. Pragmatists never
lose battles because they never fight them. They just sit down sipping piña
coladas, earning humongous salaries from their members’ dues, even while losing
many of these members to things like Reinvention.
We cannot
predict what would have happened, had a strike by 1708 taken place. But we know
what steps were being taken to offer 1708 the best solidarity that could be
organized from the bottom up. Solidarity that would have put the CCC bosses on
notice that 1708 was not alone in this battle. Things like having the union
members working within Occupy Chicago ready to go to the leadership and rank
and file of their unions and demand real, physical support for 1708. Things
like having the General Assembly of Occupy Chicago approve full support for a
1708 strike and engage in all sorts of solidarity actions. They were ready. On
day one of the strike droves of Occupy Chicago men and women were going to show
up at the City Colleges and City Hall, and you name it. The kind of stuff that
has allowed the Occupy movement to electrify and reenergize all sorts of
struggles.
Of course,
this was no guarantee that a strike would have been won. It was more of a
guarantee that it would have been fought vigorously, without a hand tied behind
our backs. Compared to the resources that the CFL could have wielded in a real
fight in support of 1708, what we described above is modest. Yet its promise is
powerful.
It is a
tragedy that things ended up this way. The other unions currently negotiating
with the CCC bosses have now a more uphill battle: AFSCME, SEIU and IBEW. Soon
enough they will be joined by CCCLOC, representing the adjunct faculty. They
need to become aware that the script is not written in stone, that the CFL is
supposed to be there to represent us, not to suffocate us. That it still is up
to us to fight a full fight because if we don’t we are screwed. And because
every time we get screwed, everyone else gets screwed too.
It is the
same way if we win. Now, think about that.
PEARL
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