CPS to end pension pickup for central office employees

CHICAGO (WLS) -- In an effort to solve its pension crisis, Chicago Public Schools will stop contributing to the pensions of central office and non-union employees.

It's the latest shot fired in the worsening contract impasse pitting the Chicago Teachers Union against Forrest Claypool, the mayor's the newly-appointed CPS boss.

"We're saying that we want to lead by example," Claypool said.

The Claypool edict means that 2,100 non-union CPS employees will see a gradual 7 percent reduction in their paychecks between now and 2018.

"Everyone has to sacrifice if we're going to get through this. No one can be excluded," Claypool said.

It is a clear signal that CPS negotiators will ask the unions representing teachers and principals - who currently pay only 2 percent of their 9 percent pension contributions - to pay all of it in their next contracts.

Last week, CTU President Karen Lewis called such a demand "strikeworthy."

"It is a pay cut. Seven percent is huge," Lewis said.

On the Claypool plan to reduce the contribution gradually, the union wrote Wednesday: "Whether this reduction is done at once or in phases, it still amounts to the same thing - a pay decrease at a time when workloads have increased by more than 20 percent."

Mayor Rahm Emanuel - who appointed Claypool last month - says the CPS pension pickup is outdated.

"What worked 30 years ago, 40 years ago is different, we're in a different position," Emanuel said.

CPS reportedly has asked state lawmakers to pass a bill to remove the issue from CTU negotiations, in effect ordering Chicago teachers to pay all of their pension costs.

Powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan said in theory, he opposes such interference.

"Repealing or resetting collective bargaining reduces wages and the standard of living of middle class families," Madigan said.

But Claypool says everyone must sacrifice to protect CPS classrooms and the district's pension system.

"But you can't do both unless everybody's contributing. Teachers, Chicago taxpayers and the state of Illinois," Claypool said.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Chicago principals and administrators issued a statement opposing the district plan to phase out the pension pickup. The association president Clarice Berry also called the move a seven percent pay cut and "unconscionable."