Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for December 5, 2008 Negotiations Update

This is getting beyond frustrating...

The BOE canceled out on the November 24th negotiations session...a session agreed upon by all parties. Then, this week's session was canceled when the mediator's mother passed away and the BOE chose not to go ahead alone.

To add insult to injury, the BOE was provided with five (5) dates in the coming two weeks (including Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday of next week!)...the idea being to wrap negotiations up in time for the regularly scheduled BOE meeting on December 18th and the FOP meeting on December 19th...perfect times for ratification of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Received official word yesterday...the next mediation session will be December 16th...the 5th and final date of the five offered! Only two days before the aforementioned meetings...

Do they REALLY want to get this over?

The CAT gave the BOE its monetary offer on August 19th...almost four (4) months ago!!! They have not responded except to ask us to lower it...to negotiate against ourselves. In fact, we made a major concession in an attempt to get them to respond. Nothing...

Patience is a virtue, they say. Well, our patience is wearing thin.