Talk about killing the goose!

Check out this article from the Trib. The teachers union wants a 30% raise but it looks like they are going to get screwed with a measly 15%. Let me give you the likely outcome of this one, a bankruptcy filing followed by 30% reductions in both salaries and pensions. These bastards are giving organized labor a bad name. 

Chicago Public Schools and the teachers union this week are both expected to reject an arbitrator's long-awaited fact-finding report, which recommends a double-digit salary hike that both sides agree could force teacher layoffs and larger class sizes, according to sources close to the negotiations.

The arbitrator is expected to recommend that teacher salaries be increased 15 to 20 percent in the contract's first year, based largely on the longer school day that begins in the fall, sources said. The increase would include hikes for experience and for pursuing graduate degrees, compensation that CPS has tried to eliminate.

The recommended raises would be devastating to a district poised to deplete its cash reserves to close an expected $665 million deficit next school year. The district also faces hundreds of millions of dollars in teacher pension payments that will come due in 2014.

The Chicago Teachers Union had gone into negotiations asking for a wage increase of nearly 30 percent over two years. Sources said the union realizes that the price of a major pay hike in terms of lost jobs and working conditions would be too high.

Union officials now face the task of explaining to members why it would reject a salary increase that is less than they asked for but significantly higher than the 2 percent first-year raise CPS initially offered.

On Sunday, union Vice President Jesse Sharkey, who declined to comment on the arbitrator's report, said the union must consider many issues beyond wages.

"We've said to our teachers that we want fair compensation," Sharkey said. "We've also said we want a better (school) day and we want to make sure class sizes don't spike. (Our members) know that we simply don't have a wage demand."

The arbitrator's nonbinding report, which was due Monday, now will be given to both sides Wednesday. CTU leaders will meet Wednesday with the union's House of Delegates to discuss the report. Once either side rejects the report, talks must continue for 30 days before a walkout can occur.

CPS also declined to comment on the coming report. District spokeswoman Becky Carroll said contract proposals, whether from the fact-finder or reached through negotiations, "must first be grounded in the fiscal reality CPS faces today and the academic needs of our kids."

"To ignore the gravity of (the district's) financial crisis would be irresponsible to our students and families as well as taxpayers," Carroll said.

Both sides had hoped the arbitrator's report would bridge the divide between CPS and its teachers, forcing them to reset their expectations and work out a deal. Rejecting the fact-finder's report is likely to trigger a more intense round of negotiations.

Authors of the 2011 school reform legislation that set the framework for negotiations included the requirement that contract issues be sent to an arbitrator as part of a larger effort to avoid teacher strikes.

Some are now wondering whether having an arbitrator has helped.

"Until we see how the fact-finder has interpreted his role, I don't think we know how helpful it will be," said Robin Steans, executive director with Advance Illinois, which helped craft the landmark school reform bill. "I don't see how the system can absorb large salary increases without significant staffing cuts."

The arbitrator, Edwin Benn, 63, a Glencoe attorney, was given the task of figuring out fair compensation for CPS teachers as they begin working a longer school day next year. Benn oversees a fact-finding panel that includes representatives from both CPS and CTU.

Both sides have moved off their initial wage offers, sources said, but CPS built its 2 percent increase into its proposed $5.73 billion budget for the next school year, and warned that raising teacher wages any higher would force cuts in staffing and programs.

Contract negotiations are taking place amid a year-long public relations battle between teachers and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Shortly after Emanuel took office, the school board that he appointed rescinded 4 percent raises for teachers, and the mayor took an aggressive approach in his effort to lengthen the school day without the union's consent.

That approach galvanized the union, which flexed its muscle last month as more than 90 percent of members voted to authorize a strike if a new contract can't be reached.

"I think it finally woke the mayor up," said Claire Falk, a social studies teacher at Dunbar High School. "We're getting ready for a strike. We don't want to do it. But we're ready if we need to."

The school reform legislation was meant to limit the union's ability to strike by pushing the threshold to authorize a walkout from a simple majority of voting teachers to more than 75 percent of all members.

CTU's Sharkey said the legislation was designed to give CPS the upper hand in contract talks.

"The reason the legislation backfired is because it produced for the district the false sense that they could dictate the terms of school next year," Sharkey said.

Labor experts say third-party mediation is often successful in settling disputes, assuming both sides respect the process and consider the fact-finder neutral and trustworthy.

But during these negotiations, both sides have faced political pressure to stand their ground. In cases where two feuding parties have a lot on the line, mediation may only add to the acrimony, said Zev Eigen, an assistant professor of law at Northwestern University who specializes in labor issues.

"Oftentimes in fact-finding, there is still a lot open to interpretation," Eigen said. "That can be perilous in cases like this one where there is a lot at stake."

CPS' former interim schools chief, Terry Mazany, said even if the parties reject the fact-finder's report, it can still bring both sides closer to an agreement.

"It's my belief that both parties are very interested in arriving at a resolution so the school year can begin as planned," said Mazany, who heads the Chicago Community Trust. "Both parties understand there's no winner in a strike."