Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for March 27, 1998 Yet Another Delay . . .

Your bargaining team attended last night's Special Meeting of the Cairo Board of Education. This meeting had been called for the sole purpose of ratifying the Tentative Agreement between the Cairo Board of Education and the Cairo Association of Teachers.

The meeting began at 6:15 p.m. as scheduled and the Board went into closed session to consider the Tentative Agreement. Your team waited patiently-- anticipating a relatively brief meeting. (We had delivered the document to the central office at noon on Monday so that the Board would have ample time for review.)

AND WE WAITED . . .

Finally, at 8:40 p.m. (2 hours and 25 minutes later), we were called in--whereupon they announced that they were taking a short break.

Your team expressed its displeasure at yet another delay in the negotiations process. We had stated in two letters, a fax, and a telephone call during the week that we needed to know IF there were any problems with the agreement PRIOR to our ratification vote --so that the vote could be postponed. We were assured on Wednesday evening that there were no problems--except possibly term life insurance. Members of the Board apologized and accepted blame for the lack of communications on their side and assured us that they would see that the situation was corrected. We took them at their word--AGAIN--and moved on to a discussion of the Tentative Agreement.

Fortunately, the only problem does appear to be with the Term Life Insurance. The Board did NOT want to put language into the Contractual Agreement guaranteeing coverage--prefering Board policy instead. We indicated that our membership had a problem with that, since Board policy could be changed unilaterally by the Board. They then indicated that their concern was a possible increase in premium. We indicated that our concern was that if the Board tried to pass an increase in premium on to the employees, that someone might drop out of the group. We reminded them that the Prudential agent had indicated that the plan was contingent upon 100% participation of ALL employees in the District--BOTH certified and non-certified.

Finally, a compromise was reached: The Board agrees-- in contract language --that it will provide $20,000 of term life coverage for each employee and will pay the individual premium up to a maximum of $5 per employee per month. (Current estimate is $3.40 per employee per month.) If the premium exceeds that amount, the matter will be immediately bargained.

So . . . the Board has NOT ratified the agreement. However, they have a Special Meeting scheduled for April 1st and they promised to take a ratification vote at that meeting. (We took note of the date, and indicated that we would NOT be amused by any "fool" jokes.) They indicated that they did NOT foresee any problems. WEcertainly hope not.

The Board is still promising payment of retroactive money for your regular salary on April 9th. So . . . be patient . . . it is a quality at which your bargaining team has become very adept!