Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter
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CAT Tracks for January 27, 1998
Negotiations Resume Tonight--Hopefully! |
Bargaining teams for the CAT and the Board of Education meet at 6:15 p.m.
tonight for the first time since December 9, 1997.
Since it has been so long between sessions, here is a brief review:
At the November 6, 1997 negotiations session, the Board chose NOT to
negotiate--citing the recent Board election
. Their team stated that it
needed to meet with the new Board prior to making any further proposals.
At the December 9, 1997 negotiations session, the Board simply chose NOT to
negotiate
! Their new team took a very hard-line position--that they did not wish
to discuss the remainder of our proposals and would not alter their monetary
offer. We reminded them of a resolution of the issues discussed at the November
meeting--a resolution made even more appealing (to them) because of new
legislation passed in December by the General Assembly--giving Cairo an
additional $447,000 for the next three years! However, they indicated that they
were not interested. We asked them to at least discuss it with the full Board at
their December meeting. We have heard nothing from them.
Last week, they finally proposed another session--the one for tonight.
Have they finally decided to negotiate? Can we finally reach a tentative
agreement on a successor agreement for both sides to vote on? Or is this
just another session called to give the appearance of bargaining in good faith?
Your team will enter tonight's session with an open mind and a willingness to
negotiate. That has always been our approach. Hopefully, their team will come
to the table with a similar attitude. These negotiations could be concluded in
one final session--
IF
both
sides are willing. It is looooooooong overdue!
CAT MEETING
:
If we do reach a tentative agreement tonight
,
we will let you know
when and where a ratification meeting/vote will be held.
If we do NOT reach a tentative agreement tonight
,
then it is time for
us to have a meeting to bring you up-to-date--face-to-face--on where we are and
what we need to do. Tentatively, that meeting would be on Tuesday, February 3,
immediately after school in the Cairo High School cafeteria.