CTU Contract Talk Briefing
CHICAGO—As bargaining continues at a slug’s pace, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) offers this primer on our contract proposals and the fiscal crisis created by the District to weaken a new collective bargaining agreement. The CTU and the BOARD will continue labor talks on Thursday, May 14.
The Board of Education chose to not extend the current contract for 3 percent raises:
The 2012-2015 contract between the Board and the CTU contained a clause allowing the CTU to agree on a reasonable 3 percent raise for the 2015-2016 school year. Although the new CPS CEO Jesse Ruiz originally called the raise “well-deserved,” he then claimed salaries must be cut, not continued. This is based on a shortfall fostered by tax policies and misplaced spending priorities designed to make CPS “broke on purpose.”
The Board wants to take about 10 PERCENT of EDUCATOR salaries through benefit changes:
The Board wants to rescind the 7 percent pension pickup accepted by the CTU in the 1980s instead of the raises we are due. They also want to renegotiate health care premiums and co-pays with demands that would likely eat up about 3 percent of our salary.
The Board rejected the bulk of CTU proposals, such as:
- Vermin removal and air quality control
- A library for every school
- A proposal to help reduce the substitute teacher shortage by allowing and encouraging teachers to bank benefit days
- Every single one of the CTU’s proposals related to class size or proper staffing for teachers, clinicians and PSRPs
- Appropriate funding for special education students in the Least Restrictive Environment
- Strengthened layoff rights and protections for rank and file union advocates
- Moving excessive Teach for America fees to a successful program that supportsparaprofessionals (PRSP) pursuing teacher certification
- Returning daily prep time before student arrival. In fact, they rejected every single proposal around prep time
- Expanded Pre-K, despite Rahm Emanuel’s claim that he has already accomplished this goal
- PSRP rights to have their evaluations fairly reviewed by a neutral evaluation board
- Parental leave for four weeks
- Limit compliance paperwork to a level that can be completed during the teacher prep time
The Board ALSO wants to take away current provisions, such as:
- Safeguards to defend against unfair discipline
- The right of specialists and more experienced teachers to first refusal for summer school jobs
- They even want to add mandatory after-school meetings requiring teachers stay two extra hours each month
The Board refuses to even bargain over key proposals:
- Limits on standardized testing to only those tests mandated by the State.
- $15 per hour for all CPS workers, claiming this is illegal
- Removing costly police presence in schools where no written plan mandates their presence
- Protection of promised pensions, claiming “no responsible stakeholder” would support
- Moratorium on school closings, turnarounds and reconstitutions
- Basic union rights for educators at charter schools, claiming they are powerless to make charter managers comply
- Joint lobbying for an elected school board or for responsible revenue sources that fairly tax the biggest profit takers
The city and state are broke on purpose, and not because of pensions:
The average teacher pension annual benefit in Illinois is a modest $45,000 and we receive no social security. The Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund gets only a penny on the dollar compared to the Teacher Retirement System, though we are 20 percent of the teachers in the state. The CTPF has been undermined by politicians who have engaged in repeated pension holidays that increased pension liability. In the past few decades, this is typical for public service pensions.
Giveaways to the rich are the real cause of revenue shortfalls:
The top 11.8 percent of Illinois tax filers took away more than half of the revenue the State gave up with the January 1, 2015 tax cut for individuals and corporations. That’s more than $2 billion to the wealthy out of the $3.7 billion returned throughout Illinois. Gov. Rauner’s individual cut alone was over $700,000. Compare this revenue cut-off to the slashing of budgets for Illinois families: more than $100 million from CPS, more from seniors, the disabled and orphans. Rauner even cut the budget for autistic residents on National Autism Day—all while increasing special tax breaks for individual corporations.
The CPS budget deficit comes from misplaced priorities:
Like Rauner and Rahm, Ruiz and the entire Board of Education are totally unwilling to demand reasonable revenue from those who have plenty to spare. But CPS makes things even worse by throwing money away through outsourcing schemes that increase bureaucracy while rewarding business class insiders—like Barbara Byrd-Bennett’s scandals from SUPES to Synesi; like Tim Cawley’s filthy giveaway to Aramark; like Magic Johnson Sodexo’s magic contract; like Board President David Vitale’s subprime financial advice to lock in toxic swaps; and like the hedge fund charter operators who promise results but see only their own bottom line. Rahm’s appointed school board has thrown away enough money to fix most of its mess.
Illinois has options. Shortchanging schools and pensions shouldn’t be one of them:
Bruce Rauner is a major league tax dodger just like his buddy Ken Griffin (the richest man in Illinois). Illinois could go after offshore tax shelters and rake in $8.5 billion more per year. That would not only fix the deficit, it could greatly expand the services to children, seniors, the disabled and the average resident. Corporate tax breaks cost Illinois nearly twice as much as pensions and Chicago’s TIF surplus for the last five years would have completely covered normal pension payments. Wealthy campaign donors secured that money instead, digging the hole the mayor wants to put us in.
Casinos and red light cameras are not reasonable solutions:
Mayor Emanuel would rather make the easy choice to pick the pockets of regular Chicagoans than ask his closest friends and campaign donors to pitch in their fair share. Rahm promises his casino would benefit schools. We heard that about the state lottery years ago. Red light cameras similarly target everyday Chicagoans with a backdoor tax. On the other hand, a LaSalle Street tax of just $1 on big ticket commodities trades would bring in $30 billion per year for the state. Adopting an Oregon-style fair tax system that provides very low rates for the lowest paid and higher rates for the biggest profit takers would eliminate debt and provide more services that make Illinois a better place to live and work.Chicago Teachers Union | CTU Contract Talk Briefing:
