On Oct. 6 Cook County College Teachers Union issued a strike authorization vote after a year of attempted negotiations between them and City Colleges of Chicago. CCCTU president Tony Johnston said the union is preparing for a three week strike if one does indeed occur. A strike date has not yet been set.
Students can expect any classes taught by union members, as well as any other union activities at the school, to be suspended for the duration of the strike, should one occur. Adjunct professors, as they are part of a separate union: CCCLOC, will be expected to continue their teaching duties during any CCCTU strike. CCCTU has agreements with the other unions such as the adjunct union to not have them take over any CCCTU duties.
In regard to the estimated three-week duration for the potential strike, Johnston cited that the average public education strike lasts around this long. However, he mentioned that there is hope for a shorter one as recent public education strikes have been shorter. The last CCCTU strike, in 2004, lasted three weeks.
Wright College Senior VP of Academic and Student Affairs, Pamela Monaco, said that the district will have a plan to rework the semester, and that it will be disclosed at the appropriate time. She also said that Wright College will work in tandem with the rest of the City Colleges to adapt in the case of a strike.
In 2004, the last time CCCTU members went on strike, the semester was extended in order to make up lost instructional time
CCCTU Wright Chapter Co-Chair Susan Grace urged students not to worry about grades and other items potentially needed for their academic record and/or transfer applications, saying that they will be sorted out, but as the situation is unfolding, she is unsure of how exactly it will be done. She added that things like brightspace will help lessen the impact of the strike on students, though CCCTU members will likely lose access to brightspace during a strike.
Despite rumors that a strike date was set for Monday Oct. 24, this date has been contested by multiple faculty at Wright as well as Johnston and CCCTU Wright Chapter Co-Chair Bill Marsh with them saying that no date has been set as of now. Johnston said that the union will announce the strike date at their rally on Oct. 27. The rally will happen at 6 p.m. at the CTU building assembly hall on 1901 W Carroll Ave.
Johnston said that the union has been in contact with representatives from each of the City College’s Student Government Associations, and will begin further outreach to students once an official date is set. However, Johnston said there will be informational picketing on all CCC campuses Oct. 26 from noon until 1 p.m. Marsh added “We’re also planning on rallies and other events to share information with students and the community.”
According to Johnston, the union and city colleges are still roughly 2% apart on average salary raises, as well as a year apart on the duration of the contract, with CCC wanting five years and CCCTU wanting four. The union is currently at an 8.75% average salary increase per year, and CCC at 6.1%. Meanwhile the U.S. inflation rate is currently at 8.2% according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the former CCC-CCCTU contract’s annual raise was 3% for its four year duration.
Class sizes seem to be agreed upon, presumably with reductions in class sizes, especially for science labs and world language courses as Marsh mentioned the union to be in favor of this. However, CCC has allegedly tied this reduction in class sizes to other things unpopular with the union such as bumping rights. Grace echoed this saying that City Colleges was offering package deals that make it more difficult to negotiate compared to discussing individual components of the proposals.
Other issues that the sides have not been able to come to terms with are the cost of healthcare premiums, with Marsh saying that they would like to set limits on them as they have been going up.
“We know these are fair demands, but CCC has shown little if any interest in addressing these concerns.” Marsh said.
Also proposed by CCCTU is a wraparound program known as City Colleges for the Common Good. CCCG would provide social services for City College students at a proposed cost of $500,000 per campus. This program is based off a similar one that the Chicago Teachers Union was able to successfully negotiate in 2019.
According to Grace, While CCCTU has one lawyer at the negotiating table, CCC hired a fourth lawyer for the negotiations from Jackson Lewis. Marsh added “[the District Office] has hired an expensive union-busting law firm, Jackson and Lewis, to work in tandem with their team of lawyers. We find this discouraging because obviously that money could be put to much better use. The way I see it, if district office were truly interested in good faith bargaining, they wouldn’t hire a law firm in the first place, let alone one that specializes in union busting.”
CCC Chancellor Juan Salgado and Wright College President Potash were unavailable for comment, with the response from the CCC Director of Media Relations, Veronica Resa, instead providing this statement on their behalf: “City Colleges is committed to negotiating in good faith with each of our professionals and faculty unions to finalize their respective contracts.”
The last contract negotiation was in 2018, and Johnston says that there are similarities to that negotiation as the union is ready to strike, admin chose not to respond to the union’s proposals until they were all in, and when CCC did come back in July they rejected “almost all” of the union’s proposals. As far as not responding to the union’s proposals until they were all in, Johnston says it was frustrating for non-economic proposals, as he believes they could have been resolved sooner.
Marsh echoed this saying, “This negotiation is similar to the last one insofar as District Office wasted considerable time by refusing to come to the table prepared with counter-proposals in response to our proposals, which for this negotiation cycle we presented in full by early summer.”
Since this vote, the negotiations have been more frequent and there seems to be movement according to Johnston and Marsh. “It seems to me that [the District Office] showed interest in active negotiation only after our strike vote.” Marsh said.
From Sep. 19 though Oct. 13, the union proposed 11 dates to negotiate of which administration accepted one, on Oct. 4.
According to Grace, In 2018 the negotiations sped up the day before the union was going to go on strike, and the contract was finalized in seemingly one day as both sides met for 11 Hours until the eleventh hour.
Wright College professor Vincent Bruckert – who started teaching at city colleges in late 2002 – says that the feeling among union members is different than it was in 2004, the last time CCCTU went on strike, as he believes that CCC is not trying to get members to strike as they were in 2004, when “faculty felt we had an administration that wanted us on the sidewalks.”
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