CTU Delegates Meeting Video

Thanks to Unfiltered News (a reader) for pointing to this YouTube snippet of the delegates meeting:

There are a few others, though none that shows the whole meeting that I have found at least.

Comments

[Love that smell]

Do you smell that? It's a contract, son. Nothing else on the world smells like that. I love the smell of a contract in the morning. Y'know, once we had a hail bomb....12 hours....and when it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of them, not one stinking rat.

The smell, y'know that rat smell, that whole hell.
Smells like........ Victory.

Some day this war's gonna end.

I love the drama. This is so funny. Why am I in this system>>>

[while we wait]

while we wait for Alexander to embed the video you can link to it here.

CTU Contract Meeting Aug 31, 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOGCjjyIuf8

CTU Contract Meeting Aug 31, 2007 (roll call)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zZ585fdXSI

CTU Contract Meeting Aug 31, 2007 (sit down)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVuPaAvNZD8

[Racer X]

Currently I have the HMO Base Plus. My contribution for my healthcare last year ate up about 2% of my raise last year. The new contract said they are going to freeze the amount we kick in for the first three years.

Therefore, out of the 4% they are trying to shove down our throats, the same 2% (since it is frozen) eats up about 2% of my new 4% raise. So with this contract, I'm down again to a 2% raise.

However, if the cost of living was 3.01% in July 2007, doesn't that really leave me with a minus 1% raise?

Wait a minute...That's not a raise. That's an insult and a robbery...I'm losing money...That's what I thought. With this contract we'll have to eat garbage for 5 years...5 YEARS.

How much are you losing???

VOTE THIS CONTRACT DOWN!!!

Racer,

I agree that this is a stinky contract, but you can't count the 2% twice.

If you made $10k last year and paid 2% in insurance, you netted $9800. Under the new contract you'd get a 4% increase which would bring your new gross salary to $10,400. Subtract 2% healthcare from that and you get a net of $10,192. So your net increase is still exactly 4%. Of course that doesn't include inflation, etc. But based just on healthcare (assuming it doesn't increase), you can't count it twice.

[New website to discuss contract]

A number of commenters here have asked if the users here could compile a list of pros and cons of the contract. I've set up a website for this purpose at pbwiki, which, if you haven't used it before, is a great site for community editing. The address to the site is:

http://ctucontract.pbwiki.com

Here's what you'll find there:

-A welcome page with instructions.

-A publicly editable page to list the pros and cons of the contract (referred to as the "Wiki").

-The beginnings of a Powerpoint presentation and a Word doc to share with members, intended to elicit further discussion of those pros and cons.

Instructions for how to play around with the wiki are on the front page of the site. NOTE: If you want to edit either the wiki or the files that are uploaded there, you will have to log in to the site with a legit email.

The password to the site is simply "ctu" (of course without the quotes).

Please keep the ridiculous partisanship that we've seen from both sides of the fence off the site. Have fun.

[anonymous]

The TEACHERS will have the last word.

The Friday August 31, 2007 Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates Meeting ended just hours ago with a Marilyn Stewart Betrayal. Marilyn Stewart, president of the Local 1 CTU promised elected delegates the opportunity to read the tentative teacher agreement, promised an opportunity to ask questions but in the end, denied hundreds of elected delegates that opportunity to vote up or in this case "down" the tentative agreement. Her team could have done better. Hopefully, Union Teachers will have more than a couple of hours to review the longest contract in a generation, five years at 4 percent annually. This is no better than the current contract negotiated by Deborah Lynch, except there are glaring flaws and several holes for teachers to dodge or vote to send back to the negotiating table.

The big betrayal is in the length of contract, 5 years, when Marilyn campaigned on no more than three years. Second, Marilyn's agreement provides for a daily prep for high school teachers but no more than 4 for elementary teachers and three in other schools. Third, teachers will pay more for health insurance with sky rocketing co-pays and out of pocket expenses that triple and quadruple in the forth and fifth years of the agreement.
Fourth, teachers who sign up to extend their day one or two hours to work after school to tutor or teach students will not be paid their regular rate of pay. Fifth, teachers have no new relief to combat overcrowding classrooms. Over crowded Chicago public classrooms is one of the major concerns for educators across the country. Stewart's team added a measly $250,000. to a class size committee that can barely hire five new teachers for an overcrowed school system that will leave children behind. Sixth, Stewart bragged that she protected PAT's, but offered no more protection, evaluations, and a three year tenure track, but nothing more, they can still be "clicked off, or resign (that's new). Seventh, the tentative agreement was so full of typographical, confused wording, and substantive errors that teachers left the meeting confused with unresolved questions that they will have a difficult time explaining to their teachers. Read it and share your comments.

Delegates were conflicted, they want to teach, they want an agreement with the city and the board of education, they don't want to strike, they want a united union.
So why did Marilyn Stewart's team 'drop the ball?' No vote, no democracy.

Marilyn's staff interupted the meeting several times. Many of UPC/CTU's most loyal supporters yelled at any speaker who did not follow the party line. The meeting was often chaotic. The union was unable to provide adaquet time for the 800 plus delegates to review the tentative agreement. A press release was prepared prior to the meeting with the "assumption" that the delegates would rubber stamp Marilyn's team. They were wrong to think that way. The CTU executive committee kept telling the delegates, this is the best contract we could get from the city.

Many left the building tonight believing and chanting that, together, WE CAN DO BETTER.

It's up to teachers to really look at the agreement, discuss it, and decide. Can we do better.
Yes we can!

Raymond Wohl
Delegate
Irving Park Middle School

[CTU Member]

If the schools are so over crowded how come only 60 schools sent in complaints? CPS saw all these reports. They know that teachers would rather have more money than smaller classes. Many teachers make deals with principals to get extra paid programs so they stop complaining about large class sizes. Many teachers are our worst enemies. We got a true 4% raise with no give backs. Friends of mine who work in the private sector barely get 2% raise. The public is ready to attack if we do not accept this great contract. I can tell you Ray that the teachers at your school will not support a strike. You will standing alone on that picket line.

He will not be standing alone. I will be standing with him.

[voting no]

Darn tootin' Ray will not be standing alone. I will be standing with him as well.

10:03,

Ok, friends of yours in the private sector barely get a 2% raise. Whoop-dee-doo. Friends of mine in the private sector get an 8% raise. Neither group of friends has any relevancy to what CPS teachers should or should not receive.

Prevailing wage, teacher wages in other large cities, and teacher wages in the Chicago metro area are the relevant comparisions.

[Ellen]

I need some clarification on the medical and dental. I'm still leaning toward voting yes. The pros still outweigh the cons.

I think I'm clear on the dental. I don't like the clause that may invalidate the cap on medical if costs go over 6%. But I agree with Ellen, the pros outweigh the cons. I really dislike the way the meeting was run, however I am voting based on THE CONTRACT, not based on my opinion of Stewart and her cronies.

[30 years and a master's to earn 70K]

10:27 Our pay is low and our working conditions are downright dangerous so pay us more than a measy 4%. A Chicago fireman who deserves every penny makes $70,000 (no degree required) after 5 years. It takes us 30 years to make $70,000 with a four year degree.

Our union team needs to go back to the table and get a 2 year contract with 6%. If we do not accept this contract they can, and have gone back, to get a better offer. Chances of a strike are premature and self-serving.

[Paying Union Member]

We have over 9,000 PATs. I will bet money they will not be walking the line. They can't even stand up to the principals when they have 36 kids in their classrooms. They are so afraid to do anything. Many PATs were babies during the last strike. They don't understand that our Unions improved the quality of public education. If it wasn't for the unions we would still have 50 kids in the classes. Ray you need to look around and smell the coffee! Look at what CPS has done to middle schools. Nothing!! Most PATs want only the money and insurance.

[PATs need to toughen up]

11:07 That's because they are not planning on staying in CPS due to the residency AND the working conditions.

Most of us were FTBs yet we walked the line. If we did not like the principal we left to go to a better school.These new teachers many who come in from the suburbs need to toughen up.

The delegaes can file a class size referral for any room in the school that is overcrowded. The PAT does not have to risk her job. A good principal will ask the delegate to file so he can get more teachers.

[Racer X]

1:45, thanks for clearing some of that up, but the contract still stinks and I'm still voting NO. It's just not enough. Teachers deserve better...much better.

I've been emailing every teacher I know and asking them to contact every teacher they know to spread the word that this contract stinks and to vote NO.

We can do better.

[voting no]

11:01, you wrote:
"I don't like the clause that may invalidate the cap on medical if costs go over 6%."

The cap will most definitely be invalidated. Employer health care costs have risen more than 6% every year since 2000 and are expected to rise even more over each year over the next 10 years. (National Coalition on Health Care)

You're right to state it is a vote on the contract, not on our leadership. That's important to remember.

I'm curious about the pros you mention. For you, what are the pros to this contract?

[G Odis]

Teachers....please do not settle for this contract. We can get a better one. I am not sure if Stewart is "in bed with Daley", but I feel betrayed right about now. Teachers, elementary and secondary, PLEASE STAND TOGETHER AS A SINGLE UNION AND VOTE THIS CONTRACT DOWN. I'm not looking to strike, but we can do better.

[Teacher sick of the union bs]

Bottom line, I like the motto, "WE CAN DO BETTER"

Voting no does not mean a strike. It means get your butt to work and get a better deal. If that is not possible, then we will vote on a strike.

In President Stewart's own words, "There is something for everyone in this contract". No, Ms. Stewart, there is NOTHING in this contract for ANYONE. Go back to the table to get the 34,000 members what they deserve a contract to be proud of and that reflects what the members have been telling you for the past two years! President Stewart, do you remember your promises: 7% raise, lower health care, smaller class size, better PAT language, preps for all, end to Ren 2010, no more than a 4 year contract, all summer pay pensionable, and most of all a open and democratic Union.

On Friday night, Ms. Stewart, you lacked total leadership, abandoned the democratic process and lied to the media and your 34,000 members. Shame on you President Stewart!

CTU Delegate

[LStop]

I used to work in the private sector. One of my coworkers told me, "If you don't get a 5% raise, than you didn't get a raise." I still remember that and stick by it. I find it hysterical when people worry about what the public will do. It'll do what it always does. It'll badmouth teachers as a whole and teachers unions, while saying great things about their own kids' teachers. If we agree to work an extra 90 minutes and settle for $20,000 a year the public will still think we're overpaid.

[Mike]

Please don't be fooled by what looks like a "nice raise". We will be paying higher medical costs for the first three years and will be bombarded when the city tells everyone that health care costs have forced them to raise our rates by minimal amounts. With no cap on "minimal" this word could force us into huge increases. Please stop thinking like blue collar union workers. We are white collar workers who get paid like blue collar workers. Wake up! If we accept this contract it could have long term implications. If the city accepted this offer they can do much better and they need to.