CAT Tracks for May 3, 2002

Cairo Citizen - May 3, 2002

Letter to the Editor

Cairo Evening Citizen
713 Washington Avenue
Cairo, IL 62914

Dear Editor:

The Cairo Association of Teachers was forced to go on strike beginning last Thursday morning. We had NO CHOICE.

In order to avoid a strike, the CAT has been negotiating for over 10 months. We have gone without a contract for 8 months. We informed the Board of Education early on that our members would not go without a contract for the entire year. Yet, the Board placed no urgency on negotiations – imposing a limit of 2 hours on sessions, once or twice a month, until just recently.

When discussions turned to money, the Board pleaded broke…repeating a mantra that “the money is just not there”. The CAT had an expert go over the District’s financial records and he found that the District DID have money for raises – raises that would NOT jeopardize the District solvency. The Board refused to accept these findings and still demanded that teachers take a pay cut for the 2001-2002 School Year – all the while telling the public that it had offered the teachers a “raise”.

After the strike began, the District finally agreed to allow financial people from both sides to go over the books, determine what money (if any) was available for raises, and to use that number to negotiate a settlement. The financial people – including the District’s own certified public accountant – met and agreed; there was $326,000 of money available to negotiate a fair settlement with employees. Unfortunately, the District still refuses to accept these findings and negotiate.

Since the Board of Education GAMBLED that the “money people” would confirm their story that they were broke – AND LOST, now the Board proposes spending thousands of dollars to go to arbitration…anything to keep from negotiating a fair settlement with its employees.

Another disturbing factor is that while repeatedly saying that District “is broke”, the Board of Education still intends to spend money on their “pet projects”. For instance, they have told us at the table that they plan to increase the number of administrators…while firing teachers and aides. At their last Board meeting, they entertained the notion of closing the District’s central offices (which costs $12,000 a year to operate) and build a new suite of offices at Cairo High School to the tune of $100,000! Now, the District has brought in its attorney to negotiate…at a great increase in cost. Why has the Board chosen to remove the Superintendent – who is already “on the payroll” – as its chief negotiator? They seem to find the money for “special needs”!

Many parents have expressed their concern over the timing of the strike – why at the end of the year? Unfortunately, there is no good time for a strike. The strike is occurring at this time of year due to circumstances beyond our control. When we first started negotiating, we were dealing with a “lame duck” Board…the members of their negotiating team knew that they were not coming back. They told us that they did not want to commit the future Board by making any agreements. When the new Board took over, they wanted time to “get up to speed”. Therefore, for all practical purposes, negotiations did not begin until January, 2002.

Another telling fact is that the District has a total of 4 unions – teachers, aides, secretaries, and custodians. All 4 contracts have expired and none of these unions have been able to negotiate a new contract. What is the common denominator here? The Cairo Board of Education.

Sincerely,

Ron Newell, President
On Behalf of the Cairo Association of Teachers