 |
CAT Tracks for October 27, 2011
NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE |
The BOE and CAT bargaining teams met last night for the 4th time. Unfortunately, there's not much to report...
We were face-to-face for maybe 10 minutes. There was some testiness during that brief time when the CAT team expressed a reluctance to engage in give-aways of existing contract language without some indication of what might be received in return...the BOE responding that THEY were the ones who had already given (the "step increase" required under the expired contract) and gotten nothing in return. CAT's response was that the "step" was NOT guaranteed...that the BOE could take it back during negotiations.
A caucus was called and the BOE team retired to the Superintendent's office while the CAT team remained in the Board conference room.
For the remainder of the evening, two members of the BOE's team acted as messengers...shuttling back-and-forth between the parties.
BACKGROUND:
CAT Tracks Editor's Note:
Wrote about this three years ago, mentioned it in one of the earlier updates...
I will NOT be publishing/discussing specific items in either party's proposals. CAT will distribute the final "TENTATIVE AGREEMENT" to its members when it happens. At that time, a membership meeting will be held for the purposes of explanation and discussion. An "up or down" vote will then be taken.
What I WILL discuss is the process and the progress.
Unfortunately, tonight's session was NOT very productive.
Here's why:
To proceed as the BOE wishes, CAT would be in the position of giving, giving, and giving - receiving nothing in return...hoping that when the CAT giving was done, that the BOE would reward CAT's language generosity with a salary increase and/or more money toward health insurance.
Past history does not support such blind faith.
However...
To show its good faith, the CAT team found five items that might address the BOE's expressed interest in "streamlining the contract"...removing items "not needed" in the contract...already covered in the IL School Code or BOE Policy...that would NOT reduce employee rights, salary, or benefits.
The BOE responded to CAT's "giving" by "letting CAT "keep" a couple of items that the BOE had indicated they wanted to take away.
BUT...
That's when the BOE's representative reiterated the BOE's desire to continue with language negotiation...NO MONEY DISCUSSION UNTIL ALL LANGUAGE IS COMPLETED. The message was clear...if CAT did not agree to do that, then it was not clear where we could go from here.
There was more discussion...with the CAT team again asking as to what motivation there was for it to engage in a give-and-give process, noting that negotiations is suppose to be a "give-and-take" process.
The new Region 2 UniServ Director gave an appropriate analogy: "If I have $20 and you take it away, am I suppose to be happy if you give me $1.50 back?"
To no avail...
The CAT team is supposed to "think about it"..."get back to the BOE representative early next week."
No date was set for the next negotiations session.
The CAT team WILL "think about it"...it always does. Unfortunately, the BOE's hard-line, language-only position doesn't leave CAT with much wiggle room.
As usual, stay tuned...
