Here’s more on the Springfield agreement from Swanson.
Last night, IEA, IFT and CTU, along with the other parties in the process, came to an agreement on the ed reform bill, SB 7.
The unions unanimously agreed to the package as did the Illinois Statewide School Management Alliance, Stand for Children, Advance Illinois and the groups they represent. The labor issues have been resolved in the following way:
· All teacher unions keep the right to strike.
- In Chicago, there will be a 90-day fact finding period, with a 30-day post-fact finding public posting period before a strike, and 75 percent of eligible voting members must approve a strike.
- Downstate (any district outside of Chicago Public Schools) will have a process that involves the mediator or one or both of the parties declaring impasse. The mediator will give the parties seven days to submit their last final offer. The parties will then have a seven-day period to continue to negotiate. After that seven days, if the parties have not settled, the mediator will publicly release the final offers with cost summaries to the media. A local will not be able to strike until 14 days after the mediator has released the offers. This is modeled after a process used in at least one other state. That state’s general counsel said that it is a process that has worked well because it forces both parties to get to the middle faster.
- We supported this proposal after reviewing research on fact finding that showed that, when one party is dragged into fact finding against its will, strikes are longer and more acrimonious.
We consider SB 7 to be a victory for IEA, not only in the sense of prevailing on a “less bad” alternative to the Stand/Advance Illinois agenda, but also because the legislation contains proposals that will improve teaching and learning in Illinois, thereby strengthening the ability of our members to advocate for themselves and their students.
Our ability to stand together with CTU and IFT and our willingness to compromise in using this process was instrumental in our collective ability to keep the right to strike for all teacher unions. We cannot emphasize this enough. Only through staying unified and exercising our collective power do we hold the line on the right to strike.
There is a wrinkle in all of this. The House decided it was tired of waiting for the Senate process to be completed and is considering putting forth their own bill.
Sen. Lightford pushed hard to have an agreed to bill (signed off on by all those represented in the talks) come out of the Senate to preempt this from happening. Today, we are waiting to see what occurs.
We are meeting today with Rep. Chapa LaVia (the sponsor of the House bill) and Rep. Eddy, as well as Speaker Madigan. We will let you know if the House bill moves at all. We will oppose it if it is introduced. We’re told the bill includes some of the original language from Performance Counts to which we were and are adamantly opposed.
Also, keep your eye on your email and our website. Vouchers have re-appeared. We may generate a call to action if the voucher bill moves to the House. Please stay connected
What more, if anything, is in Senate Bill 7? Don’t know yet.
“…but also because the legislation contains proposals that will improve teaching and learning in Illinois, thereby strengthening the ability of our members to advocate for themselves and their students,” is vague and worrisome given past messages from Swanson about seniority and LIFO.
Fred Klonsky 