"Time's Up, City Colleges": CCCTU President Tells Board of Trustees to Bargain in Earnest

At the City Colleges of Chicago Board of Trustees meeting on September 3, CCCTU Local 1600 President Tony Johnston delivered a direct message on behalf of faculty and professional staff: nearly two months after contracts expired, the administration still has not put a serious offer on the table.

"I'm here today to give you an honest update from the faculty and professional staff who keep this district running," Johnston told the Board, "because what you'll hear in the boardroom summaries doesn't capture what our members are feeling on the ground."

Faculty and professional contracts expired on July 15. Since then, bargaining teams have met with the administration 32 times combined, 17 sessions for faculty and 15 for professionals. Johnston told the Board that 50 proposals remain open, with the parties still far apart on the issues that matter most: salary, health insurance, protections around artificial intelligence in the classroom, and the academic calendar.

Johnston was blunt about the district's current wage proposal: 1%, 1%, 1.25%, and 1.5% over four years.

"That does not keep pace with inflation," he said. "That is not a serious offer to people who have kept this district's mission alive through a pandemic, through enrollment swings, through every '55 for All' and 'Theory of Change' priority you've asked us to help deliver."

Beyond wages, Johnston told the Board that the administration's negotiators have pushed to eliminate the master's degree incentive for professionals, rejected all proposals on AI protections, and proposed health insurance contribution increases that would cut into whatever raise members eventually see.

"Our members are frustrated," Johnston said. "They are tired of watching City Colleges administration walk into session after session without counterproposals, only to ask for more time. They are tired of being told this district can't afford a fair contract while it funds its stated priorities everywhere else. And they deserve better."

A federal mediator is now involved. The first mediation session for faculty took place September 1, with both sides returning to the table with the mediator on September 8. "We are hopeful mediation moves this district toward a serious offer," Johnston said. "But hope is not a strategy, and our members are not waiting passively."

Johnston told the Board that CCCTU is preparing members the same way it did during the union's last two contract fights: holding information tables at every college, building out the Contract Action Team, and organizing members to wear red every Wednesday. He also noted that the union's credit union partners are already prepared to offer strike loans if it comes to that, and he's urging members to start setting money aside now.

"We don't want a strike," Johnston said. "Our members want to be in their classrooms and helping students, not on picket lines. But we will not accept a contract that disrespects their work, and they are organized and ready to do what it takes to win a fair and dignified contract."

Johnston closed by calling on the Board to act. "We're asking this Board to direct your negotiators back to the table to bargain in earnest, on salary, on health insurance, on the protections our members need," he said. "Our members are watching. Chicago is watching. Time's up, City Colleges."