Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter



CAT Tracks for January 9, 2009
NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE

A week in the life...

As you are well aware, there have been a couple of glitches on the road to a new contract. (Yes, on occasion I am prone to understatement. Even I tire of editorializing to heighten emotion. When the emotion is already boiling over...)

Anyway...

When left to our own devices, it was a long and winding road...lots of meetings, slooooooow progress. When CAT "put the money on the table" - in the form of an initial salary proposal...on AUGUST 19, 2000 and freaking 8!...the road abruptly came to a crashing halt.

Next was the call to 911...in the form of a joint request for a federal mediator. THAT delayed things for a month, but we finally joined together on October 1st. (Then came the "Meridian Debacle"...and the fancy letters.)

Since then, there have been a couple of meetings, sans mediator. Three meetings that were supposed to include the mediator were canceled by malperforming vehicles, death, and mother nature.

Then came Monday, the Special BOE Meeting to "discuss negotiations"...

Upon adjournment of that meeting, as CATs (okay, a CAT and a former CAT)...as CATs were slinking to the door to leave, a member of the BOE's negotiating team made innocent inquiry...to the effect of "When are we going to negotiate again...whassup with the mediator?" Now that wasn't actually a quote, but in so many words...

Well, hell...like it's all on us that we are not meeting!

With due deference to a former Cairo Superintendent who admonished me that CATs don't growl...

Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Slept on that one...then sent one of my wee hour e-mails to our IEA UniServ Director. Hey, Larry...it's our bad.

Calls immediately went forth...to mediators, superintendents, lawyers. (Okay, make all those singular. I've been accused in the past of making big numbers out of little numbers! I would have called it a "flurry of calls", but as we all know...a "flurry" is more than three! Hint, hint...)

Possible mediation dates were floated...all of which eventually sank. (CAT had penciled in January 26th...in the far and distant future, but at least hope. That date vanished yesterday...without comment.)

So, where does that leave us?

Since you asked...

We'll gladly give you Tuesday (and Tuesday and Tuesday) for a commitment today! (Okay, showed my age on that one and lost you kitten CATs...it was all about Wimpy, hamburgers, and promises of the future.)

Translation...

The CAT and BOE negotiations teams have agreed to three dates (all without the presence of the federal mediator).

Those dates are:

Our neighbors to the north have settled...you know, those folks that some of us might have been allowed to join...trailing after our students. (Did think it ironic that some CATS might have become Bobcats! Actually thought it MORE than ironic...if you can't "bell the CAT"...chop his damned tail off. OUCH!)

Hey, trying to maintain a sense of humor, albeit gallows humor.

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Will it be accompanied by a loud (train) whistle??

Stay tuned...and if so inclined, PRAY!

(You heathens...keep your finger, toes, and eyes crossed. Bless you!)