Full-time faculty members at the City Colleges of Chicago overwhelmingly approved a new four-year contract Sunday, clearing the way for classes to resume Monday at the seven campuses after a three-week strike.þþBy a vote of 94.8 percent to 5.2 percent, members of the Cook County College Teachers Union ratified an agreement that includes annual raises of 3 to 4 percent and no increase in workload during the contract.þþUnion members will have to pay more for health-insurance coverage. But nursing instructors will now be paid for each hour they spend teaching students in clinics. In the past, they received one hour's pay for two hours of work.þþUnion members and City Colleges administrators both claimed victory.þþÿWe have a wonderful contract,ÿ union President Perry Buckley said outside a ballroom at the Holiday Inn, 350 N. Orleans St., where members spent the afternoon reviewing the details of the contract and casting ballots. ÿOn all the main issues, we were able to win for our members what they'd asked for.ÿþþJames Tyree, chairman of the board of trustees of City Colleges, said, ÿWe feel terrific.ÿþþTyree said the administration will spend $5 million less on salaries than initially expected and ÿthat allowed us to do a lot of other things.ÿþþDespite ratification, the union and the administration still differed on several provisions of the agreement.þþUnion officials, for example, said the average faculty raise is 4 percent per year; administrators said the number is 3 percent.þþAdministrators said the agreement ÿguaranteesÿ that all faculty members--except English teachers, whose classes entail extensive writing requirements--will teach 15 hours each semester beginning with the next contract; union officials countered that terms for the next contract can't be set in the current agreement.þþThe differences came up as both camps called for healing.þþState Sen. James Meeks (I-Calumet City), who was instrumental in brokering the negotiations that ended the strike, told faculty members Sunday that he had hoped to bring Tyree and City Colleges Chancellor Wayne Watson to meet with them.þþÿI was told it wouldn't be a good idea,ÿ Meeks told faculty members after the vote. ÿI'm not happy about the fact that I couldn't bring them ... because now it's time to heal.ÿþþSunday evening, Tyree still fumed about the ÿgarbageÿ that he said union members verbally threw at him during the strike. And he blasted the union for running a ÿcampaign of deceit and deception second to anything I've ever seen.ÿþþDespite the verbal sniping on both sides, some teachers said mutual concern for students would ultimately prevail.þþÿWe have common interests, and we have to stick together and work together to achieve those common goals,ÿ said Deloris Holman, who teaches mathematics at Daley College.þ
Source: Chicago Tribune
