Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter
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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.
We began our meeting at 9:02 p.m. They told us that they would be unable to
ratify the Tentative Agreement as scheduled--that they had not had
enough time to review it, having only received it on Wednesday. They also stated
that they needed to forward the document to their attorney for review.
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!