City Colleges adult ed strike put off by own union

By Leo Gorenstein

The 750 Chicago City College adult education teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL), GED and literacy, represented by AFSCME Local 3506, were set for their first ever strike March 3 only to be stopped by their own parent union, AFSCME Council 31. According to Local 3506 chief steward Earl Silbar the teachers were fearful of a strike but they felt strongly that their pay was so low and unfair that they were willing to risk their jobs on a strike. They had been negotiating for more than six months; they had demonstrated with their students for fair pay both in July, 2002 and a few weeks ago in the middle of February; and, they were poised along with their students to shut down their classes at all six main city college campuses as well as the major satellite locations and smaller adult education sites.

But before the strike started, state union AFSCME Council 31 stepped in and decided on Thursday, February 27 that the union would not strike March 3 as AFSCME Local 3506 had planned. Mike Newman, assistant director of AFSCME Council 31 said, “I was told that March 3 was a possible strike date, not one that was formally set. There was some progress made [in negotiations] so the decision was made to keep negotiating.”

But Silbar disputed Newman’s version of what took place February 27 between Local 3506 and the parent union. “Newman and the AFSCME Council 31 knew that we were planning to strike March 3 and also knew that we were always planning to continue to negotiate after a strike began. We never planned to stop negotiating. He [Newman] came in and told our negotiating committee that AFSCME would not sanction our strike,” Silbar said. As far as progress in negotiations, Silbar said that they were offered a 40 cent per hour raise the first year, a 40 cent raise the second year, a 40 cent raise the third year and a 45 cent raise the fourth year. A 40 cent per hour raise would translate to a $9.60 per week raise or a $460.40 per year raise for a teacher teaching six 4 hour per week classes who worked for 48 weeks (three full semesters) per year. Silbar also said that the $1.65 was not the college board’s final offer and that the two sides were not at an impasse, but that the teachers were at the point that they were going to strike before being stopped by AFSCME Council 31.

When asked if AFSCME Council 31 might sanction a strike in the future Newman said that AFSCME Council 31 had given the required notification of a strike as required by law and that a strike at a later date is still possible.

With this decision made by the ‘parent’ union it meant that if the local, which had voted 363 to 104 to authorize a strike last fall, had struck March 3 then the strike would not be sanctioned and the city colleges could fire the teachers just for striking. But Silbar said that the fight isn’t over.

“ We’re handcuffed for now, but we’re not finished with our fight,” he said. Silbar said that their fight is for dignity and that they are paid very unfairly. In fact their wages are well below both other area adult education teachers and adult education teachers in a number of other major American cities.

“One of our teachers who teaches 24 hours a week, 48 weeks a year [three full semesters], and is paid at the maximum rate still won’t make $30,000 a year,” Silbar said.

“Besides the low pay,” Silbar continued, “we get zero sick days, zero personal business days, and no health insurance. We can buy into the City college’s health plan but each individual has to pay 100% of the premium themselves. The only benefit we get is six paid holidays a year,” he said.

“We want dignity,” Silbar said, “and we want a package. We want a decent raise, we want some health coverage, and we want one-hour of preparation pay for every four hours of class we teach”.

Negotiating for six months

Despite negotiating for over half a year, Silbar said that there’s been almost no progress with the city colleges on financial matters. “Right now their offer is $1.65 over four years (as outlined above). They were only offering a pitiful $.20 cents/hour for the first two years and a grand $.30/hour for the last two before this,” he said. According to Silbar, other adult ed teachers, both in the Chicago area and in other cities, make substantially more.

“Our starting pay is $17.41 an hour and, after 15 years, the top is $25.65,” Silbar said. According to Silbar, other Chicago area community colleges start their adult ed ESL teachers at least 33% higher. “Oakton starts at $24, College of DuPage at $28, Triton at $24.99 and Elgin starts at $28.50,” he said. He also stated that similar teachers in Philadelphia, San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles all started at much higher rates, from $28 to $35 an hour starting, compared to Chicago’s $17.41.

Not only are many teachers outside of Chicago’s City Colleges paid better than the adult ed teachers, but many others who teach inside the city system are paid substantially more too.

City college teachers, other workers split into many groups, pay rates

City college teachers are splintered into many groups with varying pay rates, some with union representation and some with no representation. There are the full-time faculty members who teach numerous traditional college disciplines; science, math, history, English as well as other areas. These teachers are represented by the American Federation of Teachers Cook County College Teachers Union (CCCTU), Local 1600. Their pay, according to the agreement between the city colleges and the union ranges from $34,231 for a starting teacher with a masters degree to $103,386 for a teacher with 35 years college teaching experience including four years or more in the city colleges and a Ph.D or Ed.D or a masters plus 60. These teachers also receive a benefits package.

Another group is called the adjunct teachers who also typically teach the above type of credit classes part-time. These teachers are paid $457 a semester class hour for teachers with a masters, $525 a semester class hour for teachers with a masters plus 30, and $706 a semester class hour for teachers with Ph.D’s. These teachers receive no benefits but do get paid for classes on days when the schools are closed due to a national holiday.

As an example, an adjunct math teacher who has a masters plus 30 and teaches a 4 credit hour algebra class for a 16-week semester will be paid $2100 for teaching that course. That breaks down to an hourly rate of about $33 an hour.

The adjunct teachers are currently not represented by a union but just took part in a representation election February 24 and 25. Adjunct faculty had three choices during the election; union representation by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), union representation by the National Education Association (NEA), or no union representation. Final results of the election were not known by Substance press time, however, the NEA was leading.

Continuing ed teachers comprise yet another group of teachers in the city colleges who, like the adjunct teachers, are not represented. These teachers instruct many different types of classes such as photography, conversational Spanish and many other classes. Currently these teachers, who like the adult ed teachers are required to have a bachelors degree, are paid from $14.50 starting to a top of $22, slightly lower than adult ed. However, according to Silbar, these teacher will receive an $11 raised July 1.

Then their stating pay will be $25.75 and go up to a high of $32.

Silbar said that at a meeting with city college officials one of the college officials said that they had to raise these teachers $11 an hour to remain competitive with other schools for these teachers. The board also said at that time that they can just raise the tuition for continuing ed teacher classes so they don’t associate added expense to this raise. In response Silbar pointed out to the official how much money their teachers bring into the system as compared to what they are paid. However the board made no response to Silbar.

Adult Ed brings in plenty of money to the city colleges

Just as the Chicago Board of Education has a place on a Chicagoans tax bill so does the city colleges. Silbar said that the city colleges collect about $100 million from city taxes; $94 million from the tax bills and about $10 million from tax abatement. He pointed out that the city colleges also get over $23 million from the state and the federal government.

Silbar said that 40% of the students and 50% of the total credit hours taken in the city colleges are from the classes that their teachers teach. “So we account for bringing far more money into the system than we are paid. In fact, during negotiations I told the city college negotiating team that since we bring in $23 million to the city college system and they only pay us $14 million. They could pay us everything we’re asking for and still have $5million of the $23 million left over,” he said.

City college teachers were once in the CTU

Until the mid-sixties the Chicago City Colleges were run by the Chicago Board of Education and the city college teachers were members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). But when a separate board was created to oversee the city colleges, the city college teachers left the CTU and formed the Cook County College Teachers Union, AFT Local 1600.

“It was a natural split,” remembered Dick Holland, a retired CTU member who ran against John Desmond for the CTU presidency in 1968. Holland thought back to the many groups in the CTU at the time. “Besides the college teachers the principals were part of the union too,” Holland said. While a number of groups, including the college teachers, the principals and recently the assistant principals, have left the CTU, many different teachers and other workers remain in the CTU presently. The CTU includes elementary teachers, high school teachers, clerical staff, substitute teachers, psychologists and many other categories of workers who work under either teaching certificates or civil service.

But unlike the CTU, the CCCTU doesn’t represent all of the city college teachers. According to Silbar, the continuing education teachers are not represented; the adjunct teachers also are currently not represented but apparently have chosen to be represented choosing the NEA/IEA group over the CCCTU; and, the adult ed teachers are represented by AFSME Local 3506.

In fact, according to Silbar, the adult ed teachers tried to join the CCCTU from 1980 to 1987 but were turned down. They eventually gained representation through AFSCME.

Norm Swenson, CCCTU president and a CTU member in the 60s when the college teachers left the CTU, did not return phone calls to respond to this article.