BACKGROUND:

• CAT delayed its normal April start for two reasons:

  • A school board election (in which the BOE's Chief Negotiator Vernon Stubblefield was not even running.)

  • The resignation/retirement of Superintendent Leotis Swopes.

  We felt it best to know who "the players" were before beginning what is always a grueling task.

• June 8th - CAT and the BOE held a meeting on the eve of the last day of school. CAT called for the meeting and presented a "supposal"...an offer that if accepted could have literally produced an "over-night" agreement. The gist of the "supposal" was a modest increase in salary, some concessions on health insurance, and "rolling" the current language over into a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (aka CBA). Upon the advice of their attorney (who would lose money with a quick settlement), the BOE rejected the "supposal" within minutes. As such, the "supposal" never happened; the meeting never happened.

• June 27th - CAT sends the official "Demand to Bargain" letter, stating its intent to deliver its "Initial Bargaining Proposal" by the close of business on June 30th (the expiration date of the current CBA.)

• July 7th - CAT hand-delivers its "Initial Bargaining Proposal" along with a cover letter explaining its lateness...and offering 8 dates for possible negotiations. (The lateness was due to the transition of UniServ Director for Region 2 due to the departure of Jim Tammen for another position and a legal issue involving another union.)

• July 22nd - CAT and the BOE sign/submit a joint required 15-day notice to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board (aka IELRB)...notifying the labor board of the status of negotiations in CSD #1. (In that form, the parties agreed to defer mediation. Mediation is normally invoked when the parties have bogged down in negotiations. Since we had yet to officially begin...)

• July 26th - The CAT and BOE bargaining teams meet for the first official time at 5:30 p.m. (prior to the scheduled Special BOE Meeting.)

Below, I shall report what I found to be "disheartening".

But, first, this...

CAT Tracks Editor's Note:

In the coming days, weeks, months...I shall NOT report what transpires in negotiations sessions as I would a BOE or an FOP meeting. It's not against the law, but it could unnecessarily ruffle feathers.

If you will pardon a history lesson...

The Founding Fathers swore themselves to secrecy when they met in Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention in 1787. They feared that if individual proposals were to leak out, that various groups would take a position of opposition, refusing to even consider the finished product. The Constitution would be doomed.

Negotiations is a fluid process, involving trade-offs. It is best to see the finished product rather than the work in progress. In the end...something that might have seemed totally unacceptable might be seen in a different light when paired with another item.

So...

As members, you need to place trust in your bargaining team...knowing that nothing is official, there is no new contract until it is ratified by the majority of the members of CAT and approved by the BOE.

You will have your say...

As for me...

...yes, I was there.

In fact, in the absence of the IEA representative who canceled at the last minute due to health problems, I took the lead tonight (hopefully for the last time.)

To get De De O'Shea to take the position of CAT President, I promised to be part of the CAT's 2008 bargaining team...no matter how long it took. (Little did I know it would take 14 months and 30+ sessions!)

Shortly after the 2008-2011 Contract was ratified, I told Madam CAT President that I was done. Yes, I would be happy to remain "on call" (via telephone or across the fence) as a resource...an unofficial "historian". I would offer whatever I could in the way of past practice, providing documentation from my pack-cat files. (Little did I know that we would get a Superintendent of Schools who did not feel bound by contract language, who would freely violate provisions - especially his obsession with Personal Leave and Association Leave.)

So...

My fervent hope that this old CAT would fade away has not been nearly as successful as I hoped. (My former CJSHS colleagues will attest that my presence in those hallowed halls has been rare indeed. I'm trying...REALLY!)

BTW...

My "lingering" is NOT that Madam CAT President can't handle it...she can! As I have noted in the past, Mama CAT fears no one. De De is the face-to-face type. Me, in comparison, I'm the shy and silent type...a letter writer, a paper trail builder.

However, Madam CAT President can't do it alone. Two CATs from the last round of negotiations (Angela Coleman and Suzanne Partridge) have stepped up once more to negotiate. Another CAT from CJSHS has expressed an interest, but is currently having health issues. The IEA representative would make 5...the normal number for the CAT and BOE bargaining teams.

When Madam President told me that the IEA would not have a representative present for tonight's meeting, I agreed to attend. My intent was to play a passive part...the "historian" mentioned above and the note-taker (my roll back when Steve Kohn was CAT's Chief Negotiator.)

As fate would have it, I was handed two documents at the beginning of tonight's session that, well, pissed me off:

• One was a letter about the amount the District pays toward employee health insurance.

• The other was a document entitled "NEGOTIATION PROCEDURE", presented by the BOE team.

After a few minutes of silent reading, with the BOE team looking on, awaiting our response...it just popped out of my mouth: "We need to caucus." The BOE took the cue and left the room for the Superintendent's Office.

With steam pouring from my ears, I turned to Madam President and asked: "Can I do this?"

I went on to explain my ire...and my belief that somebody needed to be the BAD CAT. Since I was "temping", I felt that I was the logical choice. De De and/or the IEA Representative could then make a "fresh start" at the next session.

Well, as we waded through the aforementioned materials, my initial anger subsided. As wrong-headed as the proposals were, it would be counter-productive to risk blowing up negotiations.

So, by the time Madam President summoned the BOE to return to the table, it was a fairly MILD CAT who presented our concerns.

Health Insurance Premium Letter