PACT: ProActive Chicago Teachers and School Employees

Dear Member,

After analyzing and weighing the pros and cons of the new CTU Contract, the members of PACT recommended voting No on the agreement.  A No vote does not mean a vote to strike.  It is a vote to send the team back to the bargaining table for what they promised to members: a better deal. 

The re-opener on healthcare premiums, for example, given that national increases are at 9-10% annually, means that increases will surely occur within the first year of the agreement.  And a union giving up our hourly wage for overtime (i.e. the cap on after school wages),  is opening the door for the Mayor to eliminate our hourly wage during the school day.  We are the only CPS union to give back our hourly wage for overtime.

Finally, the Agreement is silent on Renaissance 2010.  Fully 50 new schools have been open in the last 3 years and thousands of CTU jobs have disappeared.  The mandate this team received should have given this them the power to stop the bleeding of our jobs and they did nothing about it.  We believe the mandate has been squandered, so it is for these reasons and the cons listed below that we encourage you to send them back for the deal they promised, a better deal.

                                                           CONTRACT CONS (source: ctucontract.pbwiki.com/Wiki)

• Caps after-school instructional pay at $37.50 ('08-'09),$40 ('09-'10),$42.50 ('11-'12) [44-43-B, p.19]
• Caps after-school non-instructional pay rate at $30 [44-43-A, p.19]
• Health Care Agreement reopener renders all freezes invalid [32-9, p.14]
  • Health Plans will be renegotiated if employer costs increase by 6% or more in a single year. Health care costs have been increasing at least 6% each year. That trend will continue for the next decade. [www.nchc.org] Result will be guaranteed renegotiation within 12 months.
  • No change in language for class size. CPS does not have any standards for the 5x28 recommendation.
• PAT “protections” amount only to observation and conference [23, p.10]
• Five year contract is too long
• No pensionabilty for overtime
• No daily prep for elementary teachers.
• Copays will increase from 25%-133% [Appendix E-D, p.23]
• All employees must use direct deposit [36-11, p.15]
• Dismissal of PAT for cause is at the discretion of principal and/or BOARD and not grievable [39-2.3, p.17]
• No solutions to Ren2010, charters, school closings, etc.
• Anticipated 12% heath care costs per member per year [32-10, p.14]

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PACT's CONTRACT DEMANDS: