Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for December 5, 2001 Bad News...Sad News

As you know, negotiations had been put on hold for over two months due to District personnel matters and the induction of new Board members. The much delayed exchange of counterproposals finally took place last Friday, November 30th. The two teams then met as scheduled on Monday, December 3rd. It wasn't pretty! Beginning 15 minutes late (6 p.m. start delayed while the Board assembled a team), we spent at least a half hour "discussing" whether to renegotiate the "guidelines" for negotiations which were "TA'd" (tentatively agreed to) on June 5th--the only TA in over 6 months of negotiations! It was finally decided that we should simply move on to a discussion of the counterprosals for Articles I and II.

But, wait a minute...before we get to that...The Board team objected to a "preface" contained in the CAT's original proposal of June 26th. This "preface" simply stated that all "past practice"--those day-to-day procedures that we have all come to accept, e.g. getting stipend pay for MRSH "as completed" instead of having to wait until the end of the semester--would continue unless specifically addressed and reduced to writing during these negotiations. This, in itself, has been "past practice". Instead, the Board team put CAT on notice that NO "past practice" would be recognized from this day forward unless it was negotiated and reduced to writing. The CAT team objected...that this would place the CAT in the untenable position of having to identify all "procedures" of the District, reduce them to writing, and negotiate them into the contract...an onerous task which would further delay negotiations and produce a contract probably double in size! Much discussion followed, with your team giving examples of "past practice" and citing the FACT that the Board has the ultimate protection...if it objects to a specific "past practice", all it has to do is to deny that it is a past practice and the burden of proof is on the Association to prove it--in front of a labor board hearing officer. The Board team agreed to take the matter under discussion. (Incidentally, the reason why the Board wants to do away with "past practice"...since the Superintendent and the Board are all relatively "new", they do not know what the past practices of the District are...want the freedom of changing...doing whatever suits them...)

Discussion of Article I - Recognition (identification of whom CAT officially represents) was tabled pending the outcome of the official election concerning the merger of teachers and teachers' assistants.

By the time we got to Article II, our two-hour time limit had almost been reached. We briefly discussed a couple of items--with no agreement forthcoming. The CAT then made general note of the movement made by the two teams in the counterproposals exchanged on November 30th...namely that CAT had proposed changes to 13 sections (trying to address concerns raised by the Board during 6 months of discussions). The Board, in turn, had made only ONE...literally dropping one word from their initial proposal...giving back something that they had taken away! Oh, the Board did (try to) take back something that they had given in their original proposal. The CAT pointed out that movement backwards constituted regressive bargaining...a violation of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act. Oh, and they did (try to) delete the three "Addendums" contained in the contract after not addressing them in their initial proposal...further regressiveness! The Board's justification of that action...they did not know that they existed until last Thursday...although the addendums are clearly referenced in their original proposal of June 26th.

Well, I said it wasn't pretty...We concluded the evening by agreeing to meet again on Monday, December 10, at 5:30 p.m. The Board team has promised to "revisit" Article II and the CAT team has agreed to make a counter on Article III.

We will continue to keep you informed...through CAT Tracks and our website at geocities.com/cattracks.geo

Sad News

Unfortunately, an event occurs periodically that places our other day-to-day concerns into proper perspective. (Contracts? CPDU's? How many shopping days until Christmas? Etc.)

The sudden passing of Karen Adkinson is a tragedy that should cause all of us to pause...to take stock of our priorities. Nothing is guaranteed. As you know, the District will close on Friday so that we may say good-bye to a colleague and a friend. The Distict will announce arrangements so that you may pay your respects to a teacher...more importantly, a person...who despite some very tough personal times with family health matters...seemed to always have a smile on her face and a positive word to say to all she met. On behalf of the Association...Good-bye, Karen...you will be missed...but more significantly...you will be remembered.