TEACHERS

UNION

Created
in-house by
union staff.

Contract #11
Bulletin
March 12, 2O16

This bulletin is part of a series to be distributed by CTU members at your school in order to provide regular updates on our
negotiations for the new contract that will succeed our current agreement, which expired on June 30, 2015.

APRIL 1, 2016
CPS Chaos Means: Prepare For Action

We are on the move. First the district threatens 5,000 layoffs, then backs it down to
1,000.Then they offer us a deal to avoid layoffs with big pay reductions and health-care
increases, our Big Bargaining Team rejects it,
they threaten layoffs and a cut of 7 percent salary, we respond with an April 1 day of action.
Result: They fire 34 of our members, impose
a three-day furlough and back off the 7 percent cut. Feeling dizzy yet? The key ingredient
in this dynamic has been our ability to move
educators and community allies to demand
sustainable and well-resourced public schools.
But we are not out of the woods. While the
Board withdrew the decision to cut the pickup starting in April, they left it in motion as a
possibility later on.
Without additional revenue from the state and
the closing of loopholes to stop charter mania,
we cannot reach an adequate settlement that
stabilizes our classrooms and properly invests

in the education of our students.That is why we

are getting ready for a showdown and shutdown
on April 1. We have to send a message with our
allies and other unions that Gov. Rauner and
Mayor Emanuel cannot continue to starve our
communities while wealthy corporations and
their millionaire friends feast on our suffering.
Our members, students and their communities are paying too high a price for the greed
of the 1%. We are only one of eight remaining states where people like Ken Griffin, the
richest person in Illinois, pays less in taxes as a
percentage of their income than a lunch lady.
This has to stop!
If we were to impose a set of graduated
income tax rates equivalent to Oregons,
where the highest rate is 9.9 percent for the
very wealthy, Illinois could more than double
its revenue from personal income tax. This
would generate approximately $18.1 billion
in new revenue.

Although Rauner and his wealthy friends are

playing with our lives, we arent playing with
them. So on April 1, its time to get serious and
join in a fight of epic proportions with labor
and community allies to shut down the city
and state to demand the revenue our communities deserve for vital services and schools.
CTU has done this before.
The national news has been dominated by stories of courageous Detroit teachers breaking
the law and taking a blue flu to protest the
deplorable conditions in their classrooms.
CTU members have a long tradition of similar activities. In 1993, when Chicago Public
Schools were in financial distress and controlled by a state finance committee, Julian
teachers took a blue flu to protest the rotten
treatment that their students received at the
hands of the political establishment and protest funding cuts. April 1 is an opportunity to
rekindle this powerful tradition. CB

Contract Bulletin #11

March 12, 2016

Answers to Common Questions About April 1

What kind of action is this?

Why now?

This is a one-day job action to protest inaction on our contract, bad faith bargaining by
Chicago Public Schools and the lack of funding for our schools. The date for an action
like this must be officially set by the House
of Delegates. A special House of Delegates
meeting has been scheduled for March 23
so that delegates can set the April 1 date as
recommended by Chicago Teachers Union
leadership. With Rahm Emanuel and Forrest
Claypool cutting our pay nearly 1.5 percent
with three furlough days, still planning to cut
our pay an additional 7 percent in a little more
than a month, and pursuing school closures
and additional budget cuts late into the school
year, we must act to demonstrate our resolve.
When we make a threat, and back it up, the
powers that be take us seriouslyand Rahm
is already on the ropes. Now is the time to add
Gov. Bruce Rauner and his millionaire patrons
to our primary target list.

Emanuel and Claypool are incapable of getting

the state legislature to fix the school funding
formula, restore social services or keep our
universities afloat. We, however, can. Our
movement of educators, families, students,
professors, train conductors, nursing home
workers, social service providers and community organizations is growing. Just like a
coalition came together to power the elected
school board bill to an overwhelming victory
in the Illinois House of Representatives, we
can mobilize against the Rahm-Rauner attacks
on our communities to pass a fair tax that will
properly fund programs and institutions that
are important to working families.

Are we playing an April Fools

prank on the mayor and governor?
No. They are playing with our communities
by rewarding their wealthy pals with huge
tax breaks, subsidies and bad bank deals. On
the other hand, the CTU and our allies are
dead serious. While the state budget impasse
continues, the elderly, toddlers, university
students, K-12 students, the disabled, orphans
and the indigent are all facing a crisis of epic
proportions. Poverty in Illinois is on the rise
and racial disparities in income are growing
to levels not seen in more than 50 years. The
time to act is now. We intend to use our considerable collective power to draw attention
on April 1 to a vision that supports the conditions the people in our state need and deserve.

Why a one-day job action?

If we must strike to settle our labor contract,
that strike will last as long as necessary to win a
fair contract. But our April 1 job action is to send
a messageto Claypool, Rahm and Rauner
that we are fed up with their bad faith policies
that shortchange our students and educators.

Is a one-day work action illegal?

The mayor, the governor and their cronies will
say it is. The mayor attempted, however, to
declare our strike in 2012 illegal even though
we played by his rules. With Rauner appointees now controlling the Illinois Educational
Labor Relations Board, they will pull out
every trick in the book to stop us. The only
sure thing is that when we take our destiny
into our own hands, we have more control over the outcome. They cannot replace
27,000 educators. When we are united and
build strong alliances, there is little they can
do to stop us.

What are possible negative

repercussions?

We hope the district understands that

instead of fighting us, they can work with us
to restore tens of millions of dollars to our
classrooms by going after the toxic swaps,
demanding restoration of the tax increment
financing (TIF) surplus and fighting for progressive taxation in Illinois. Will they seek to
harm us, we do not know. But that would
not be wise, given that this is a one-day work
action.
They may seek a court order to try to prevent
or interfere with our job action. Depending on what action our House of Delegates
approves, they might single out union leadership for retaliation. At the end of the day, if
we make a compelling case to the public and
are joined by tens of thousands of others in
similar situations across the state, they will
reconsider any punitive action.
Be prepared, however, for lots of scary
rhetoric from the mayor and Claypool. They
will try to cajole, threaten and frighten us.
Our resolve and clarity of purpose are the
strongest antidotes we have to any fear-mongering.

What happens to our insurance in

a one-day job action?
It should not impact our insurance. Even if
our coverage was disrupted for a day, we have
the ability to get COBRA, and payments are
not due for two months. Just like in 2012,
there should not be any problems with our
health insurance coverage. CB