Phillip Cantor explains why the Chicago Teachers Union rejected Rahm Emanuel’s contract offer.
The offer had some good things in it, but what killed it was a “poison pill” provision:
“The CPS offer basically froze compensation for most teachers for four years. I was OK with that… even though CPS has taken about $2 Billion from teachers in the past five years. I like the idea of getting rid of the pension pick-up, but don’t want teachers to suffer 7% pay cuts to achieve it. Some teachers would have come out with a tiny increase over 4 years, other teachers – longer serving teachers- would have had to take a significant pay cut.
“CPS’s offer also included a requirement – added at the last minute – that over 2000 CTU members take early retirement with the provision that if that number didn’t leave the profession the contract would be re-opened. In other words… the whole thing would be scrapped. To me this seems like a poison pill. How could CTU agree to a contract that forced a 10% reduction in teachers and school staff? How could CTU agree to a contract which had a self-destruct clause in it?”
So, layoffs now or layoffs later.
The CTU bargaining team unanimously rejected the deal. And now the CEO is threatening to impose deep cuts and layoffs without a contract.
CTU will hold a mass rally on Thursday afternoon to protest.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Also, there was a kind of hilarious bit, in which CPS agreed to no net change in number of charter schools (so, to open a new charter would require closing an existing charter– which is something CPS has done recently).
The problem with that provision is that the Illinois State Board of Education has overrulled CPS more than once, requiring the district to open new charters even when the CPS Board denies them.
But, really, what seems to have swayed the votes of the big bargaining unit was the notion that the contract would only be valid if we hit ~200% of the average annual retirement rate, as you note.
Frankly, this move by CTU’s executive board is puzzling. As a mid-career CPS teacher, my initial disappointment at the rejection of this offer has turned to downright dismay after learning of the specific reasons for the thumbs down:
*The early retirement clause. This offering for teachers doubled from the initial CPS offer. While nothing compared to corporate golden parachute packages, a step in the right direction.
*An unenforceable charter halt that has always been unenforceable. The Illinois State Charter School Commission has the ability to override any local or district mandates concerning charters. Enacted by law in 2011, the CTU does not have the time or resources to argue for its undoing in this contract cycle.
*Distrust of City & CPS brass. That entrenched Chicago politicians and their appointees are corrupt should be about as surprising as the sun’s rising each day. Rahm agreed to a whopping 8.5% interest for the issue of about $725M in junk bonds, the benefit of which will go to Wall Street.
Setting these concerns aside, the offer was legitimate and should have been voted on by the membership.
Nonsense. Most teachers are no “OK” with a four year pay freeze. Chicago teachers deserve a raise, not additional austerity cuts and a continuation of the bankrupt narrative about the “financial crisis” (a narrative that has been around since the late 1970s in one form or another to bleed Chicago’s real public schools and the CTU).
The teachers of Chicago deserve to live and earn a fair wage just like everyone else. Just because some bureaucrats want to continue profit from education doesn’t make it right to deprive the teachers in the trenches.
The teachers should just go on strike today and not return until they are offered a fair deal.
Even though I live in a “right to work” state that doesn’t mean that teachers/educators in the State of Texas should not work towards a work stoppage. Teachers in Texas have not had a real raise in over 15 years. Every year teachers receive a 2-4% raise and that raise is promptly eaten up by the constant rising cost of health insurance.
The time is coming when there will not be any teachers to fill the vacancy that are coming. The teachers of my generation (25 plus years) are all preparing to retire and it will leave a huge hole that will not be filled.
The Buffalo Public Schools is also trying to settle a contract with a district which wants all take always and no givebacks. Luckily NYS requires the district to honor the old contract (about twelve years old) until a new contract is adopted although the state did institute a three year wage freeze during that time. Twelve years without a wage adjustment leads to inequities and when comparing the median salary between Buffalo and Niagara Falls there is over a $35,000 difference. (That is not a typo.)
To top it off, the Superintendent refers to the teachers in Buffalo as dregs.
My heart goes out to my sister educators in Chicago. You are not alone.
This is CALLED “TEAR DOWN teachers, students, parents, and the entire school district in to BUILD what the deformers want.
Isn’t this the fascist and militaristic way?