CAT Tracks for April 22, 2009

Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for April 22, 2009

NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE II

By way of explanation...

At least a few "Enquiring CATs" want to know...why were the negotiations sessions for April 21st and May 4th cancelled?

In yesterday's edition, I vented over the general reason without giving the specific reason. Again, frustration will do that to a person! Eons of hearing "the sky is falling, the sky is falling" - IN GOOD TIMES AND BAD - gets waaaay old.

However, you (CATs) have paid your dues...in actual CAT/IEA/NEA membership fees, but more importantly in time, anxiety, and frustration.

You deserve "the rest of the story"...

First of all...a digression!

Watched a new "judge show" on TV last night...you know, like "Judge Judy" or "Judge Mathis". This one was "Judge Helen".

Two young ladies were in Helen's court suing each other over a month's rent and a damage deposit. Nothing new there, although I was expecting cell phones instead. (Come to think of it, cell phones are usually a boy-girl thing.)

Anyway, what was new...one girl was suing the other for "pain and suffering"...pain and suffering over a month's worth of rent???!!! And...out of the $1600 she was suing for, Judge Helen gave her $600!!!

ATTENTION CATs: Y'all need to contact the IEA legal department! If anyone has ever suffered "pain and suffering" over not being paid what one was due...it's YOU!

Back to the story...

Last Friday afternoon, an IEA representative met with one of the District's FAs (one of the three gentlemen hired by the Cairo FOP to monitor the District's finances.) Not surprisingly, it was the same old tune..."How broke we are, how broke we are, nobody knows how broke we are."

Yes, there is money in the bank...yes, stimulus dollars are on the way...but, WAIT, it's not what it seems!

Can I get some violins please?

Nah, stop right there; used enough sarcasm yesterday...

Seizing on the same negatives used in previous decades - declining student enrollment and declining local tax base - by the year 2014, Cairo School District Number One will enter hard times.

Thus my opening of yesterday..."In the year 2525"...a hit song by Zager and Evans in the year I started teaching at good ol' CHS...1969.

2014

2000-Freaking-14.

Stop right there...

...ranted yesterday...no need to beat the dead horse today.

The horse is still dead!

See...this is what Cairo officials and most other officials in custody of the "gold" (wherever they may be) do!

If they do NOT happen to have gold today, they will proudly proclaim same in denying the workers their share for doing the actual work. On the other hand, if they DO happen to have gold today, they will do one of two things:

Hide the gold and pretend it does NOT exist, or

Direct your attention to the next period when they might not have any gold!

Well, since CAT Tracks has done a fairly good job of exposing their pot of gold, Cairo School District Number One has chosen "Door Number Two"...
...2000-Freaking-14.
Needless to say, I'm not impressed...nor are the other members of the CAT bargaining team.
However...
The rules of negotiations (which WE try to follow) demand that we be open minded and bargain in good faith.
Since CSD #1 has assembled its "Trojan Horse" and laid it at CAT's doorstep, the CATs must react.
Like the Trojans in Greek Mythology, we could simply grab 'hold of that puppy and haul him in...hook, line, and sinker. But, you remember the outcome of that heady move...the Achaeans slaughtered the Trojans.
No...we are NOT the bunch of dumb-as, uh, we are not a bunch of illiterate CATs. We aren't sitting at the master's feet, eagerly wagging our tails. CATs don't do "sit up and beg" either.
No...the CAT bargaining team, in good faith, will examine the Trojan Horse - i.e. the District's we-are-broke presentation. Obviously, that was NOT going to happen by April 21st...the first day back from Spring Break. That's why last night was cancelled.
Why not May 4th?
Actually, when we set up the May 4th date, we had found numerous conflicts in team-member schedules...thus the relatively late date of May 4th.
When the District belatedly decided to present its "Trojan Horse", it did not remove the prior scheduling conflicts. After an attempt to find another opening failed, it was decided that the CAT team's best option was to cancel the negotiations sessions and use the May 4th date as a "team meeting" date.
Now you know "why" the meetings were cancelled.
Your CAT bargaining team had already put together a counter-proposal to the BOE's proposal on part-time employees. We had also prepared a response to their position on the hiring-and-firing of coaches. If the BOE is suddenly "anxious" to negotiate, we can always deliver those documents...to give them something to "occupy their time". However, should they choose that option, we would expect them to have a response READY...at the BEGINNING of the next negotiations session...NOT to make us sit and twiddle our thumbs for an hour or two while they finally read the proposal(s) they were so "anxious" to get.
We will let you know as soon as another negotiations session is scheduled.
Don't hold your breath...
Despite its words...despite 31 meetings over the past 11 months...the BOE has shown by its actions that it is in no hurry to settle. When they consume one entire session worrying about such minutia as whether part-time CATs will be covered by contract language providing President's Day or Spring Break off...do NOT expect the next meeting - whenever it may be - to result in substantive progress toward a new contract.

After all is said and done, the best you can hope for at the next meeting is that the BOE will offer you another $85 per year. (That ass-u-me-s that they have not already reached the limit that secures their survival through 2000-Freaking-14!)