Out of
the blue, the full-time teachers and professionals of the City Colleges of
Chicago began receiving in the mail on Saturday, August 25 notification about a
tentative contract they did not know was being negotiated and which they were
being asked to ratify in less than a week. Their current contract does not
expire until July 12, 2013. Why the rush?
Represented
by AFT Local 1600, these educators were suddenly brought into the vortex of the
struggle between Mayor Rahm Emanuel and their sister union, the Chicago
Teachers Union (CTU), which represents 30,000 teachers and educational support
staff at the Chicago Public Schools (CPS).
The
Machiavellian strategy of the Mayor was on display for anyone who can see. He
commanded CCC Chancellor Cheryl Hyman to extract from Local 1600’s leadership a
signed promise to deliver a yes vote by September 3, the day before classes are
scheduled to start at CPS:
“Local 1600 will
recommend a “Yes” vote to all voting Local 1600 members to ratify this
agreement. Local 1600 will conduct the contract ratification vote before
Monday, September, 3, 2012.” [CCC-1600 tentative 2013-2018 collective
bargaining agreement]
And to
make sure that he could extract maximum advantage from these developments,
Emanuel wanted to schedule a press conference for Friday, August 24 to inform
Chicago about the tentative agreement. To show how he had managed to obtain a
swift contract with a group of “reasonable” Chicago teachers who could then be
diametrically opposed to the recalcitrant and unreasonable CTU. When Emanuel’s
minions communicated to Local 1600’s president, Perry Buckley, that he wanted
to hold the press conference on the 24th, Buckley responded in
embarrassment that he needed the Mayor to wait longer because he needed more
time to notify his union members. He did not want his members to first find out
about the agreement from the press.
A
tentative contract full of harmful concessions
As
revolting as this is, it is not the whole story. The “reasonable” CCC teachers
and professionals are being asked to ratify a contract that is extremely
damaging to them and their families. And that is the second important reason
for shoving this contract down their throats at rocket speed. They don’t want
to give people enough time to analyze, discuss and propose alternatives to this
miserable contract, and most importantly to prevent them from organizing to
reject it. The chickens always come home to roost, and they are doing it with a
vengeance. The logic of Reinvention has overtly come to exact its price from
the flesh of these teachers and professionals who are the frontline of the
education efforts at the CCC.
First,
the contract surrenders the decades-old pay scale established in the form of a
“steps” table. Every contract until now had a table that clearly specified the
pay rate according to the degree of academic preparation (Masters, Ph.D.) acknowledging
every year of experience (in steps). In the second year of the contract the
steps will disappear. And with them any recognition of years of teaching
experience. It is also path for completely doing away with seniority. This is
precisely what CPS is demanding from the CTU, except that CTU’s leadership is
standing firm in opposing it.
Instead
the CCC got away with replacing the steps with a cost of living allowance
(COLA), language that had never existed in previous 1600 contracts. The product
of hard-won years of teaching experience replaced with the malleable notion of
COLA. And what is the teacher’s COLA worth to the Cahncellor who makes over
$275,000 per year? 2.50 percent per year. Because the step system will be
removed in the same contract, this 2.5 percent will actually amount to about a
0.5 percent pay increase in relation to prior contracts. It’s a very poor deal
for union members taking away not only seniority but their only real guarantee
of a base pay raise over time.
Teachers
asked to consent to performance pay
But this
is not yet the whole story. The harmful practice of merit pay is also inserted
into this collective slap in the face. The administration has inserted into the
contract a potential 1% bonus which they have called “student success pay.” So
instead of offering a 3.5% COLA, they are holding back 1% as a carrot that if granted
will not become part of the base pay of the employees, it is merely a
“commission”. But not every 1600 employee would partake in the “bonus.” Only
teachers and the professionals charged with face-to-face contact with the
students (e.g., the advisors) would be eligible for this 1%. The other
professionals will be held to the 2.5% COLA. Initially, the 1% bonus will be
granted on a District-wide basis, if the whole college system surpasses still
unspecified criteria. This is abominable. Acceptance of this scheme amounts to
acknowledgement by the union that the students are not successful enough
because the teachers are not working hard/smart enough and therefore need the
market-based corrective of an economic incentive to work harder/smarter.
Contrast this surrender to merit pay with CTU’s firm opposition to it. Yet, the
worst of merit/performance pay is still in the works.
The
tentative agreement establishes as a legitimate procedure, that would be
sanctioned by a yes vote, the post-contract-ratification development of
individual merit pay schemes that would be legitimized through
mechanisms such as a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that would be put
together between the union leaders who are recommending this deplorable
contract and the administration that is imposing it:
“Draft an MOU to
form joint CCC-union committee to address…additional ways to measure individual
merit, such as assessments that go across the departments.”
The
formation of joint committees between the union and the administration is not a
rare event. They do not need to be ratified in a contract. The specification of
a MOU protocol for the formation of a joint committee to discuss any issue does
not require a contract vote either. Why then insert and highlight such language
in the very skimpy body of the tentative agreement? We are afraid that it is to
establish facts on the ground, to have inscribed on the ribs of an approved
contract that the CCC teachers have agreed in principle to let themselves be
caught in the poisoned broth of individual performance pay. The CCC already
extracted this concession earlier this year from their adult educators, who
appear to us to have been sacrificed by their AFSCME local.
The CCC
wants to introduce individual merit pay and they want it bad. Acceptance of the
principle of performance pay is very damaging to educators and to students. It
is like pregnancy; you are either pregnant or you are not. There are no degrees
of pregnancy. Either you stand firm in rejecting any kind of performance pay or
you succumb to it.
Surrendering
pension benefits without a fight
Another
set of very damaging concessions relate to the retirement benefits. The
pensions of public employees in the state of Illinois have been under severe
attack for years by a coalition of politicians (Gov. Quinn, House Speaker
Madigan) and the billionaires of Illinois represented by the
Commercial Club Of Chicago. The public employee unions have been fighting to oppose these
unconstitutional changes ever since. However, the contract that Local 1600’s
leadership recommends gives up these benefits without a fight:
“CCC pays
premiums only for current retirees.”
“Sick days
cannot be used for retirement enhancement if pension cost are shifted to CCC.”
It is
absurd that just when the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) announced that
it has filed a lawsuit against the legislation signed by Gov. Quinn last May
allowing the government to renege on the constitutionally guaranteed contract
provisions of our pensions, specifically the health care premiums, the
tentative contract surrenders them in a particularly treacherous way. Only the
premiums of the current retirees are preserved, reinforcing the unfortunate
longstanding practice of Local 1600 of privileging their veterans and retired
members at the expense of the rest of the union membership.
The
second item is as insulting. Any sick days remaining in an employee’s sick days
bank will be lost (or more properly stolen, even the cash out allowance has
been thrown overboard) when he/she files for retirement. Again, those lucky
enough to retire or have retired before July 12, 2013 will not have to pay the
price, for there is very little doubt that the pension costs will be shifted to
the CCC and all other individual state agencies as promised by Gov. Quinn and
his partners in crime. Disgustingly enough, 1600’s leadership didn’t even
secure a match to the agreement reached for District Office potentates who were
allowed to grandfather in their sick days accumulated until this year. Sadly,
the battle was over before it started.
Finally,
there are additional concessions meant to further squeeze the income of the
union’s membership under the perennial excuse that money is scarce. The
hypocrisy of this statement is unbelievable. There are over 50 top-level administrators
at District Office making well over $100,000 per year according to
Carol Marin’s News 5 recent exposé. There are over $250 million allocated for
Emanuel’s pet project, College to Careers, to build a new Malcolm X College
building. There are millions of dollars spent in frivolous offices at District
Office. But there is not enough money for the teachers and professionals
healthcare insurance, increasing their premium contributions from 13 to 16 percent
over the life of what will turn out to be a very long, 5-year contract.
(Chipping away at the 2.5% COLA!)
Add to
this the fact that the tentative agreement commits Local 1600 “to
participate” in the Mayor’s Wellness Program (WP). This is extortion. The WP is
a Trojan horse. Under the guise of looking after the health of city employees,
the WP forces an employee to surrender to the “monitors” enough personal
medical information to certify that the employee is having satisfactory
progress (i.e., losing weight, cease smoking). Many have such hectic lives that
finding time and energy to participate in such programs will be impossible. The
end result is that those unable to participate in these programs will have
their premiums jacked up $50 per month. But this is precisely the goal of the
Mayor, to have workers pay an additional $600 per year in healthcare premiums.
This is why the CTU is also rejecting this alleged “Wellness” Program. Tell you
what Mayor, want to help workers improve their health? Stop overwhelming them
with work, stress and pay and benefit reductions. Then they’ll have plenty of
time to join a gym.
Future
of education in Chicago at stake
And there
are many other things wrong with this tentative contract that we don’t have
time to go into. Such a lousy contract offered in exchange for betraying their
union brothers and sisters at CTU is
unconscionable.
This is inexplicable. We could understand (but not condone) if the leadership
of Local 1600 would have come to its membership with a juicy bribe to have them
ignore CTU’s current fight, but not with this pathetic collection of
concessions that damage the working conditions, standard of living and
self-respect of the teachers and professionals of the CCC.
This is
very unfortunate and ironic. When Local 1600 went on strike back in 2004, a
significant factor propelling the strike was that the old, corrupt leadership
of the CTU refused to fight back, rolled over and sacrificed their members in
their contract negotiations the year before. The onus was placed then on 1600
to hold the line, which they did then despite numerous shortcomings. Roll the
film forward to 2012. Now CTU has a leadership and a membership ready to fight.
The same types of disgusting concessions are being demanded from both unions.
The best chance they stand to win this fight is by joining together, shoulder
to shoulder. There is no good reason why Local 1600 should be voting on a new
contract ahead of the outcome of the CTU contract fight. Particularly because
its current contract doesn’t expire for another 10 months. A victory by CTU,
will only make it harder for Emanuel to impose onerous concessions on1600.
The lives
of CCC teachers and professionals and those of their CTU brothers and sisters,
as well as the future of education in Chicago are on the line. We urge you to
vote NO on this disgraceful contract and get your comfortable sneakers out of
the closet to join the CTU on the picket line!
PEARL
