Now, the teachers get to say
Teachers at International High School at Prospect Heights in Brooklyn congratulate Chicago teachers on their contract win today. “Your fight is our fight!”
Some contract settlements make me scratch my head in negative amazement. Some put a smile on my face. But as a career union teacher who led a local and sat long hours at the bargaining table many times, I strongly believe that the collective bargaining agreement belongs to the those who must work it. The rest of us may have opinions. Only members get to vote.
The tentative agreement that the CTU bargaining team will present to its House of Delegates, and if passed, to its members, is theirs and theirs alone to vote yea or nay.
At a time when Illinois has a governor who came into office with a promise to destroy public employee unionism, that alone would be a victory.
Bruce Rauner is a big loser in the agreement that put teachers and students in classrooms yesterday morning.
But there is more.
Rahm said the city was broke, demanded a return of the previously bargained 7% pension pickup and portrayed the board’s early offers as a pay raise when it was a pay cut.
CTU members get to keep the pickup, new hires get the 7% as direct Now, the teachers get to say. | Fred Klonsky:
