Marshall High and other turnaround high schools, in Chicago and nationally, face a thorny dilemma. Higher-performing students are being siphoned off through competition, driving down enrollment and raising tough policy questions about the future of these schools.
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Real World, CTU -- An Update
By: Alexander Russo / May 01, 2008
For those of you who can't bear to read through all the latest comments about the Chicago Teachers Union, here's a little attempt at a summary and update: First of all, apropos of May Day, a "new" coalition of CTU members, calling itself ... The Coalition ... is supposed to be meeting at The Parthenon restaurant in Greektown to discuss what happens next.
This is, if I understand correctly, a splinter group of the "old" UPC that includes Ted Dallas and Linda Porter, two CTU officials who have seemingly had a falling out with Marilyn Stewart. They're gathering ideas and preparing for a showdown at the delegates' meeting on Wednesday.
In the meantime, accusations are flying back and forth about how much current CTU officers are making, how much of a deficit the current CTU has rung up, and whether John Ostenburg, the chief of staff, is really a union member or not. Ostenburg recently came on the blog himself and made some comments. Maybe Marilyn should do the same?
Things I don't quite understand: Is Ted Dallas still showing up at the Mart every day, or has he left the office and returned to a school? Can CTU members withhold dues or PAC contributions without endangering their membership? How many probationary teachers have been let go so far this spring? How big the CPS excess pool is? Did the CTU really fail to rally against the charter expansion legislation that's now going through the legislature?
May you live in interesting times.
UPDATE: My raw notes are below.
WHAT’S GOING ON ABOUT CTU?
CTU one of the most
conflicted, colorful organizations out there – having their dirty laundry aired
on District 299.
Drama and infighting is
better than anything on reality TV – “Real World, CTU” – but about a serious
issue.
Happy May Day – appropriate
and timely for this discussion
WHAT”S BEEN HAPPENING
Scads of comments this winter
and spring about what’s going on inside the teachers union.
Makes sense – there are tens
of thousands of Chicago teachers, as well as teachers in training and parents
with kids in CPS schools – directly affected by what happens in CPS and within
the CTU.
Most recently: Letter sent to me in which Stewart complains
about being treated rudely by her own Secretary (Linda Porter), elected on a
slate with MS last spring.
Second letter that has come
to light – probably through Stewart opponents – that is embarrassing. December version was to Arne Duncan,
effectively renouncing Ted Dallas, another slate member.
WHAT’RE THEY TALKING ABOUT?
Substance of the complaints
include school closures/job loss, a contract provision that allows probationary
teachers to be fired every spring without any real process, budget deficits
within the CTU, and personnel conflicts with Dallas and Porter.
Turns out the new contract
that Stewart negotiated doesn’t do all that much to address concerns about her
predecessor’s contract in terms of protecting probationary teachers.
No real way to remove Stewart
from office until the next election, short of some sort of criminal misdeeds.
It seems like she had her VP
Ted Dallas, who many considered the kingmaker in her administration,
removed. NOT CONFIRMED.
A current flashpoint is John
Ostenburg, who is now Chief of Staff to Stewart and who some critics don’t
think is a help to the situation.
Osterburg recently came onto
the site and made the claim that he was a loyal union guy – no sightings of
Stewart or Dallas (or Dunan for that matter).
WHAT NEXT?
UPC Meeting at the Parthenon
this afternoon – all welcome (4:30 p.m. 319 S Halsted) – new coalition called
The Coalition
Talk of withholding dues
($800 a year) or PAC fund contributions, or planned sickouts.
Trying to fight off expansion
of charters from current 30 to as many as 100.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
What happened to the promised article on Washington High's new heavily clouted and grossly remiss principal?
Dearie, do you remember when?
George Schmidr just arrived on the scene?
Real World, CTU -- An Update
Visit http://www.coalitionsdu.org
Real World, CTU -- An Update
The United Progressive Caucus was formed over the political corpse of John Desmond, as many who are still around still remember. I wasn't there at the time, but the details about sending Desmond to Springfield are true. Also true is the fact that the Desmonds never forgave Healey and his top henchmen for the deed. The UPC has not been around forever, but came out of the tumult of the 1960s, when there were (as there are now) several caucuses within the Chicago Teachers Union.
Healey pulled the groups together into the UPC by cutting deals with people for jobs and some programmatic stuff.
Jon Kotsakis and Lester Davis (and others) wound up working at CTU in staff jobs as a result of that amalgamation. Both Kotsakis and Davis came out of the "left" in the union (the original Teachers Action Caucus).
Glendis Hambrick came out of the Black Caucus. The Black Caucus was enormously strong back then, especially because of the 1968 FTB wildcat strike against the racist classification of most black teachers as "substitutes" into the late 1960s -- with, by the way, Desmond's assent. One of the reasons why I took so much time recounting Jim McQuiter's funeral was that someone needed to put the history of that strike into print.
Earl Kelly Prince came out of the Independent Caucus and wound up on the union staff for the next 30 years.
And a bunch of the old guard (Alice Weatherwax, for example) came out of the old guard, having once been buddies with Desmond. Jacqueline Vaughn was brought into the leadership at that point, although she had not been a firebrand leader back in the '60s (as she was first to admit, when I was interviewing her before her tragic death).
There is often a "MacBeth" angle to these kinds of stories. Desmond got to play Duncan to Haley's MacBeth, but was around, and in a comfortable job, for years and years. Some of the others who were purged from the leadership back then wound up back in the classroom, but not Desmond.
Anyone who wants to do these histories could probably get a PhD with a little work. Between CTU and the Chicago Historical Society, most of the paper records are still there.
The most valuable resources, however, are the memories of human beings, and those are being lost quite quickly. Robert M. Healey, John Desmond, Jim McQuirter, Hudson Wadlington, Lester Davis, Alice Weatherwax, Rochelle Hart, Jackie Vaughn, and Jon Kotsakis (to name just a few of the most important players) are all dead by now. And the memories of everyone who is still around are, at best, imperfect, at worst, completely self serving (or even worse: addled).
Just reviewing these names (and remembering each of the faces) is enough for me to say thanks for asking the question. One of the sad things about all this is how much basic dishonesty goes into the writing of the history of each of these important institutions. Each CTU regime has whitewashed the history, rather than providing the members (and posterity) with some basic human facts. When UPC was ousted in 2001, they dumped a lot of the records. (That's something they accused me and some other people of doing in 2004, which was a lie and which I was able to prove a lit).
The current iteration of this stuff under Marilyn Stewart's regime is only interesting because it has been a little more stupid than its predecessors -- although not, if you look closely, by very much. As I've noted here before, Marilyn Stewart purjured herself at least once during my recent lawsuit, and that kind of institutional memory is a real drag on posterity.
By the way, the Ostenburg histories published over the past couple of years in the Chicago Union Teacher are barely the beginning of the telling. Ostenburg's recent review of "Red Chicago" is truly bizarre. The influence of various kinds of Communists (Capital C, for the Communist Party USA), communists, socialists, and others on the history and development of the Chicago Teachers Union is a lot more interesting (and extensive) than that silly Cliffs Notes version that was published in the Chicago Union Teacher.
Where was I? Those years presented our generation with several challenges, and you had to pick your nighmares. I was working with the "G.I. Movement" back then -- as an outside legal counselor to active duty and reserve service men and women, and as a kind of consultant on media. My draft status was "CO" as of 1968, although in a unique way, and twice the Army said it didn't want me, even as a non-combatant. That's how I got the brief acknowledgement in "Sir No Sir" -- "archival assistance". Too many of my friends from back home (New Jersey) had been sucked into the Vietnam vortex for me to take seriously, until after 1975, the internal politics (often amazingly petty and soap operatic, then as now) of the Chicago Teachers Union. Since then...
Well, that's another story for another time.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
Do you suggest that Marilyn will be a lobbyist before she retire or die?
Do you know when?
Real World, CTU -- An Update
This is not the first time a Vice-President (Dallas) has put pressure on a President (Stewart) to leave office. A veteran teacher told me a story about Robert Healy successfully pressuring John Desmond to step down as CTU boss. The teacher told me that Desmond worked as lobbyist before either retiring or dying.
Does anyone know the facts? George Schmidt, you sound like you have been around for a while. Do you know the story?
Real World, CTU -- An Update
I just tried the September 2007 Substance and got the same result. I'm going to check again with our Web person about how to reload the PDF. At the present time, that's all we have up. If you e-mail me, I'll see about how to get you a PDF, or you can get print for the usual terms.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
Hahaha
Real World, CTU -- An Update
tired from all the caucus meetings? wake up, it almost time for the house of delegates to meet. somebody stop me!
Real World, CTU -- An Update
George,
I cannot access the pdf version of the Sept 07 issue of the Substance. Acrobat says the file is unfixable.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
Is it true that Dallas has no right to use 'UPC'?
Is it true that 'UPC' stands for corruption and ignorance?
Who wants to be associated with the 'UPC'?
Only paid staffers -only small number of members were present last time.
'UPC'= lie,selfishnes,dishonesty.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
Is it true that Dallas tried to feed her by force and caused: Union deficit of 5 millions
What and how much were you eating and how often?
Real World, CTU -- An Update
Hahaha IFT?
Real World, CTU -- An Update
I would like to refer everyone to the great article in the [/i]Washington Monthly[i] by George Anrig, who succintly sums up why Conservatives are moving away from school vouchers, discussing the low performance of many experiments of charter schools across the country. Amazingly, at the same time, this magazine sucks up to the Michelle Rhee take-over of the Washington, D.C. system. This is just an illustration of our most serious problem- infighting in public even as the enemies of unions everywhere work to undermind us.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
"I don't know if this was a typo, but I read in the CTU paper and Substance that Lindblom Math and Science Academy voted for the contract 19-5.... I was party to counting the votes -- it was 19-5 against. Our principal said other principals razzed him about this result." (Ed. Yesterday).
You're not the only one whose school vote was flipped towards Marilyn's desires at the finish line. The September 10 referendum was as honest as the August 31 "count" of the House of Delegates. It's why these historical events remain current events. When Enron's executives cooked the books (and gave themselves obscene bonuses; and screwed California), it took some time for the rest of the world to catch up with the scams. People who control the numbers -- and the interpretation of the numbers -- have a short term advantage over those of us who have better things to do than lie, cheat, and steal. So it takes some time for the truth to catch up.
At least you got to "vote" and "count."
How the "count" came out after that was in the hands of others, as you know. By the September 10 referendum, Marilyn Stewart had abolished every protection for the voting that had been instituted by the previous administration at CTU. No American Arbitration Association pickups. No ballot boxes that couldn't be played with. We were back to the Good Old Days of UPC rule. And the UPC may have failed to bring in decent contracts, but the one thing they knew how to do was make their numbers when important votes were happening.
How much else did Stewart steal? Keep digging. We've all got nothing but time.
You can get the September 2007 Substance now by paying for the print edition (we have some back issues left) or going on line at www.substance news.net. You get there by going to "Back Issues". You'll get the PDF. Every school is listed. It makes amazing lunchroom reading, now that people realize (a) how bad this five-year contract is in the face of reality, Daleyism, and inflation and (b) how many quickie counts and lies have been coming out of the Mart lately.
Those numbers came straight from the official count CTU announced and posted on the CTU website on September 15, 2007, as noted.
I was hoping then that some more people would take a closer look at those numbers. Some schools had so few "No" votes (look at King High School, which had only three "No" votes) that you could doublecheck the integrity of the official count simply by asking around the building. At King, the polls were closed four hours before the instructions said to close them, actually by the time First Period had begun.
Another interesting "cohort" of schools from the September 10, 2007 vote includes every school that didn't have a delegate to supervise the voting. Who organized the vote -- and who voted on behalf of whom?
Since Marilyn Stewart has refused to publish a Delegates Directory (as required by the union's by-laws, by the way), who even knows what happened at those 50 or more schools where the vote was totally under the control of people working for Marilyn Stewart?
Now I also think these same questions need to be asked about the lovely events on the third Friday of May, when Stewart became "Ms. Seventy-Six Percent" (something that immediately went to her head, as close observers have noted).
Stalin said (reportedly, I wasn't there) that it doesn't matter how people vote but who counts the votes. Corporate Stalinism is Chicago's "school reform" model under Arne Duncan, with the Board members rubber stamping every policy promoted by Richard M. Daley and the ruling class.
One of the few places left where there is some democracy is within the Chicago Teachers Union. And if you go back over those "votes" from September, you might notice that more than Lindblom is kinky.
Which is why we put all those boring pages into print and why we put it on the Web.
It's called the "Teachable Moment." And as both classroom teacher and since, we've been patient people. Whether it's the lies of a corporation like Enron, a phony like Arne Duncan, or a fool like Ms. Seventy Six Percent, the liars eventually are forced out of the shadows.
Have fun...
Real World, CTU -- An Update
I don't know if this was a typo, but I read in the CTU paper and Substance that Lindblom Math and Science Academy voted for the contract 19-5.
I was party to counting the votes -- it was 19-5 against. Our principal said other principals razzed him about this result.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
I don't know if this was a typo, but I read in the CTU paper and Substance that Lindblom Math and Science Academy voted for the contract 19-5.
I was party to counting the votes -- it was 19-5 against. Our principal said other principals razzed him about this result.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
Rumor around the watercooler has it that John O. condones ghost payrolling at the CTU offices. Dues money hard at work! More information soon to come. Stay tuned for details and evidence.
HiHo
Real World, CTU -- An Update
By: Oh Johnny O.
CTU President Wants Respect -- From Her Own Treasurer
Arne is not the only fabricator of the facts. John O. has been doing the same. He believes in loyalty to President Stewart, but what about his loyalty to former President Lynch? My source inside the CTU back in the Lynch years, told me that he was openly speaking and working against the former president while he was writing the union paper. In fact, my source also tells me he was an active and paying member of the UPC under the Lynch administration.
The question is, why is he so upset that Ted Dallas no longer supports Marilyn Stewart?
Answer: John Ostenberg is a hypocrite! John Ostenberg doesn't care about the Chicago Teacher's Union and it's members! From what I have been reading on this blog, all he cares about is money and jobs to family friends.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
We are impressed by your intellectual achievement..WOW with so little brain...really it is amazing..
Real World, CTU -- An Update
Thank you for this, vehicle to allow us to communicate with each other and to read current information about the system. I actually look forward to the opportunity to "vent". Everyone is afraid of being labled a trouble maker, and think conversations are listened to over the class intercom, or they warn you, " be careful who you talk to." Our delegate decided to give the new contract to people she liked, I was really incensed, however we will get a new delegate someday!!!!!!!
Real World, CTU -- An Update
employee,
still best post yet.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
CPS, board meeting, discussed hiring 2000, new teachers. Is this an oxymoron? Currently over 1000 teachers, are being displaced or laid off. The recruitment, job fairs have given priority to the alternative certificate candidates, they enter the sites earlier than other teachers, and the principals are instructed to give them special consideration, their resumes' have a symbol on them for easy identification. Perhaps the board pays part of their salary when they are hired. CPS also asked why new teacher turn over is so high. From my observation, the candidates are trained in theory only, they do not know how to respond to a crisis in the classroom. Perhaps we need a classroom reality show. The union should bargain for a level playing field for all candidates. The entire process is very frustrating, principals and a.p.s don't return phone calls, or keep their promises. Our govenment was founded and the constitution established because of the injustices of the majority, so we must continue to strive for justice and our rights. I recently asked our union delegate what good is a contract, if you allow our rights to be compromised,by stone walling the members and helping the administration perpetrate injustice?.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
Dear Employee(LOYAL)
I strongly believe that you are aware that all of us were told many times that" Children First".
We believed.We were told that the small school concept is the best one.We believed in teachers leadership model,we put a lot of personal time to build the better envirinment for kids.
After 3 years of successful implementation of the best model we were asked to work on ...we were told pack your bags and go.
Children lost their "safe harbour".Who cares?Now we are talking about the privatization what means money for organizers and f..kids.But ,wait we have a Union,we are protected.
Leadership can not help us, they are busy actively participating in the destruction of the public schools system,paying themselves using our Union dues and again f..kids..f..membership.Who cares?
They need their piece of the pie.
So dear employee are you so intellectually limited or just doing your job as ordered by your masters from the Mart?
Real World, CTU -- An Update
If I believe there is no hope or everthing was bad then I would not allow myself to be torrmented on a daaily basis by the [i]system[/i]. It is what I want to do at this moment of my life, Not for the money, although it is not that bad, but to be able to use what I know to make a difference.
when i get to a point where either i have accomplished my goals or i feel i am not being effective or I am out of touch then it will be on to the next adventure.
Why waste me time doing something I do not like then I am just ripping myself off and when i do it for money that is called something else. i need not elaborate.
See you all. I am off. Two meetings tonight: one to expand our computer recycling program into 7 more schools and two to start planning on developing a skills-based international school.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
Real world
If you really mean what you wrote then perhaps the convent or an order of Monks
might be right up your ally because you are really out of touch with reality as I see
it every day. As a teacher in a Southside General High school with over 38 years of service you sound like a sincere fool who thinks the only thing the kids you face ever needed for salvation is your golden touch. Like I once did decades ago.
I would like to know your name because if you don’t develop a hard shell when they haul you off to the funny farm I can silently snicker to myself.
If you really think Children, the offspring of my high school students, are really the only ones to matter please tell that to the kids who are going to get shipped out in September.
Or the hundreds, who never enter High School at all.
If you are daily disappointed, sometimes disgusted, and usually embarrassed by your
Fellow teachers just try and imagine how you will feel in a few years after you finally
Conclude your were a failure.
When Little Jody gets knocked up even after all those talks you had. Or Tyrone blew away his grandparents for a bag of crack the same day you gave him a buck for carfare.
Personally if this blog disturbed me reading it would the last thing I would do. Or
Just maybe there is a kind of truth expressed here by all us Child Hating Teachers.
A sort of reality hard to find anyplace else in print.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
Now THAT was the best posting yet!
Real World, CTU -- An Update
I see hope and promise especially opportunity.
I decided four years ago when I firsty started teaching that my focus is the students and the only way to help the students is that I become active ion whatever capacity I can to help change the system.
I do not see bad kids, lazy teachers or subversive administrators.
I see the chance to give people hope that things can and will be better.
To start though wee need to become a culture of transparency and open communication where we can share what is going on at the moment so we can find the best solutions for the issues we have to deal with.
Now it looks all bad (not to me) but as things get put out in the open only then can we work on improving ourselves and the environment for our students and children.
Change is hard but once you get use to it it is easy.
Just look at the negative as an opportunity for improvement.
Put your two cents in.
Make a difference.
Call somebody.
Email somebody.
Show up somewhere and ask if someone needs help.
That's all it takes.
It takes us to make a difference.
And yes we have to talk about what is wrong to be able to see what needs fixing.
I see the light at the end of the tunnel that is where I always walk to.
My shining light that guides me through the darkness.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
employee,
best post yet.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
Just a thought that occured to me. In this blog, no matter where I read, there are rantings and ravings about how bad things are, how the poor adults have it so bad, and the general tone of many of the posters is that they know better than everyone else about what is wrong, who to blame and how to best moan about it. This is a SCHOOL system, where CHILDREN are really the only ones who matter and there is so little said about them and the many problems that they face, both academically and socially. I go to work at a school and am daily disappointed, sometimes disgusted and usually embarassed by my fellow teachers. I read this blog and my feelings are supported rather than challenged.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
Board Actions Adopted on 2-27-2008: 1) CLOSE THESE SCHOOLS- All faculty and staff members currently assigned to Davis, Gladstone, Johns Middle Academy and Midway Academy will be displaced at the end of the 2007-2008 school year in accordance with Board policies and any applicable collective bargaining agreements. 2) CLOSE THESE SCHOOLS- All Orr Campus High Schools' employees, including the principals, will be removed in accordance with Board rules, policies and applicable collective bargaining agreements, IF ANY. 3) CONSOLIDATE THESE SCHOOLS- The employment status of all faculty and staff members currently assigned to Carver Middle and Irving Park Middle will be determined pursuant to Board policies and any applicable collective bargaining agreements. 4) RECONSTITUTE THESE SCHOOLS- Pursuant to 105ILSC 5/34-8.3(d)(4), all Nicholas Copernicus, Fulton, Howe, Harper High School and Morton employees, including the principal, will be removed and replaced in accordance with Board rules, policies and applicable collective bargaining agreements, IF ANY.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
"...George, the engineers at Orr, Harper, Copernicus, Fulton, Howe, and Morton won't be fired because they have contract protection!!! Custodians yes, will be fired, engineers no, won't be fired!!! Maybe everyone should be in their union!!!..." (Retired principal, yesterday morning).
The Board voted to fire the entire staff of each of the six (eight?) schools on February 27, 2008. Where the unions protected their members by contract language, some of those firings will not take place (immediately; watch what happens to the tenured teachers and PAT4s that Marilyn thinks she's "protected" in her sellout contract).
But I stand corrected.
And thank you, retired principal.
Of course, someone should ask Marilyn Stewart (Local 1, AFT, teachers, clarks, assistants of various kinds; others), Clarice Berry (Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, AFL-CIO, principals), and Christine Boardman (Local 73, SEIU, AFL-CIO, custodians, bus aides, special ed, and security aides) why their union presidents (all of whom paid taxes on incomes well into the six figures last year) somehow failed to do what the engineers were able to do.
Marilyn wasn't the only six figure union leader who ignored and vaoided the school screwing hearings in February.
On to another question. What gets to be "news" in Chicago? (and elsewhere).
Now and then, the Tribune or Sun-Times accidentally reports some news.
But usually, the news line is set by the editors. They assign staff to the stories -- after Arne Duncan or some other "newsmaker" has an "editorial board meeting" and wows the people who distribute news resources with some Power Point and cooked books. That's how you get all of those Gee Whiz "news" stories the day before Arne produces another media event. The most recent was the "news" that that outfit in California might -- might, mind you -- submit an RFP to privatize another CPS school under the next round of RFPs out of "New and Charter Schools." Or that heart warming "news" story about how the head of the LEARN charter school had a hard life but bootstrapped blah blah blah the day before Mayor Daley, the Gates people, and Bill Ford announced that ridiculous Power House thing in that asbestos filled massive room out on Homan.
The books have been cooked before you get the data. Now and then (as in August 2006, when Marty McGreal challenged Arne on overcrowding and screwing Gage Park High School and Lori was able to get a couple of stories into the Trib) some reality gets into the "news" pages. But rarely. And almost never on TV (the main source of information for most people nowadays).
It's the media equivalent of the executive briefings that were used to pump up stock prices back during the "Dot Com" bubble. Arne's version of reality becomes the official context for "news" -- no matter what's going on in the real world of your hot classrooms (or outside your window) next week.
If you want to know how things are at Calumet High School four years ago (for example) don't spend some time at Calumet, ask Arne or his favorite "principal for a day..." (Father well subsidized Daley clone Pfleger)...
Etc.
But I digress. And there is work to do.
The question isn't how many weapons were confiscated inside Chicago's public schools during the past week, but how many of those confiscations were every reported into the official data bases. And the answer to that question, going back into last month's fiascos (plural, that) at Washington High School is, by my present estimation, about ten percent.
For every weapon reported, there are nine cover ups so the principals don't risk being data driven to destruction.
Great town.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
Hello Kelli are you still there?See you on Monday.Kiss.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
the few that are willing to put their name to their comments and ideas as part of our right to freedom of speech. And the right as rank and file union members to question our leadership.
Everyone is scared that they will be next.
The way I see it. If I am next I am going down with a fight.
The other more particle matter is that I like to sleep at night and believe that I have done my best to help those around me.
Just imagine if just 10% of us got together and demanded a stop to the school closings.
Just imagine if 3000 of us told Stewart to do her job and stop blaming her problems on the [b]"mid-80's"[/b]
Just imagine if we all went to Springfield what those scum corrupt legislators would do when we knocked on their doors and asked why they back stabbed us!
Just imagine all it takes is we watch each others back!
That is the the union I know!
In Unity
Coalition for a Strong Democratic Union
csdu@live.com
Real World, CTU -- An Update
To: George,
Why is it that the only legitimate news source in the city is you?
Real World, CTU -- An Update
The only problem is Kugler is right if teachers are classified as exempt employees, meaning they are not subject to over-time pay because they are not hourly employees. Now in the state of IL, that also means that:
"A salary level cannot be reduced because of a change in the amount of or quality of work performed. Although there are a few exceptions, exempt employees must be paid their full salary if they worked at all during a work week – regardless of the number of hours or days. However if an exempt employee did not work at all in a given week, they are not entitled to their salary." taken from a site capsulating IL labor laws.
I'm part of a class-action suit (who isn't by now) that involves a company that made employees take unpaid time off due to the company's financial situation. What is at the bottom of the argument is the fact that we are exempt employees.
Now, the employer can require that people swipe in and out and it can discipline staff for failure to do so up to and including termination, but it can't dock a day's pay for failure to swipe, especially if the employee is actually present and working as witnessed by other people.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
With all due respect, what is the big deal about being required to swipe in? I know teachers put in long hours on the weekends and over the summer when they're supposedly on vacation, but plenty of professions require far more hours than teachers are "required" to put in--this kind of action by Hyde Park seems more like an attempt to catch the people who AREN'T showing up on time or leaving early--what's the problem with that?
Things like this--viewing being required to "prove" that you are coming in and leaving when you are expected to be at work as punishment without due process--gets me frustrated with fellow teachers and the union mentality, and ultimately causes the public to have no sympathy for teachers--in my mind, it is NOT too much to ask employees to swipe in. Organizations don't just undertake a stance that will ultimately require more work all around (once you require it, someone has to be in charge of making sure there is compliance). There has to be a reason behind it, and I'm guessing it's people not showing up on time or leaving early. Why would the good teachers want to support those who just bring the whole profession down?
Real World, CTU -- An Update
..............engineers negotiated better job protection than the CTU.
what do you have to say about that office staffers?
fact or fiction.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
What's up with the Julian principal? On some kind of involuntary leave?
Real World, CTU -- An Update
I was out of the building for a few days. Low and behold when I get back I have a flurry of complaints and inquires[i](phone, email and in person)[/i]
The staff had this in their boxes.
[b]ATTENTION
ALL FACULTY AND STAFF
EFFECTIVE MAY 1, 2008
MISSING SWIPE FORM WILL NO
LONGER BE ACCEPTED AND/OR
APPROVED BY HYDE PARK
ADMINISTRATION.
ALL FACULTY AND STAFF MUST
SWIPE IN AND OUT EVERYDAY. NO
EXCEPTIONS.
IF YOU DO NOT SWIPE IN AND OUT,
YOU WILL MISS A DAY'S PAY.
[/b]
In my opinion it is a summary suspension without pay. Meaning you are being punished by a dock in pay without due process.
I am also under the idea that we are salary employees therefore any alteration in our pay has to be documented and follow the contract.
A former delegate informed me that this would be violating state labor law.
Anyone deal with this before?
Real World, CTU -- An Update
George, the engineers at Orr, Harper, Copernicus, Fulton, Howe, and Morton won't be fired because they have contract protection!!! Custodians yes, will be fired, engineers no, won't be fired!!! Maybe everyone should be in their union!!!
Real World, CTU -- An Update
And those six schools aren't the only ones being screwed thanks to the Stewart Sellout. Just the most viciously attacked and the most hypocritically slandered (replacing veteran teachers with a bunch of shake and bake corporate FNGs from AUSL or something even more ridiculous...).
Irving Park Middle; DeLaCrux; Andersen; Carver Middle; Midway; Gladstone (now there's a corruption story that could fill a book)...
And then there are the schools that have been magnetized and otherwise transformationed since the February 27 vote of the Board of Education. The Board and Daley's people (Duncan et al) are paving the city over the corpses of decent schools with all these novelty items they're selling.
And they're getting away with it so far because Marilyn Stewart thinks the best way to stop this machine is by singing and swaying at Operation PUSH on a Saturday morning when the Jackson family has sent in its third string, just to keep you in your place!
I'm talking about that stupid article one Page Three of the last issue of the Union Teacher saying the reason why everyone got screwed is that the teachers didn't go to PUSH on February 23 to see that Jesse Jackson Sr. (the guy who just two years ago was supposedly helping Harper High School), Jesse Jackson Jr. (the Congressman), and Sandi Jackson (the Alderlady) were all AWOL while Marilyn talked about how much pain other people were getting.
That's right.
Marilyn actually said the reason why the Board of Education was screwing all these schools was because teachers didn't go to a PUSH meeting that the Jacksons missed, too.
What a town...
Real World, CTU -- An Update
By the way, the May 1 Parthenon meeting wasn't the only one this week. Marilyn hosted her version of the "UPC" also. And there's a meeting of a different group tonight out in Pilsen. And a meeting of PACT Monday at Leona's on Taylor.
By next Wednesday (meeting, 4:00 p.m., Plumbers Hall), when Marilyn's dwindling number of fans tries to stop any discussion of the budget mess she's gotten CTU into, there will be at least four different plans showing up at the House of Delegates meeting at 1340 W. Washington.
Maybe there will even be some teacher union members picketing Marilyn for selling out all those schools that got screwed in the past four months under Renaissance 2010 and Renaissance II (Arne's plan to escalate Ren 2010 from 100 "new schools" to 150 "new schools" as he's been talking about).
The six schools that Arne slandered and "turnarounded" on February 27 (Orr, Harper, Copernicus, Fulton, Howe, and Morton) are now in the final 60 days before all of their staffs -- from principal to custodians -- are fired thanks to all those lies that were piled on during the "Hearings" between February 4 and February 16...
Not one teacher or other worker at one of those schools would be being ruined right now if Marilyn Stewart and her dwindling "team" hadn't sold everyone out between August 20 and August 31 across the bargaining table.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
"...How come none of this has surfaced in the papers recently?..." (curious, about two hours ago).
We began covering it in Substance in February, after we verified Marilyn Stewart's "In Solidarity" letter to Arne Duncan.
This blog began covering this story (which gets bigger by the month) almost when it broke with Marilyn's attack on one of her officers and her December 26, 2007 love letter to the Boss.
I ran it on Page One as soon as I was sure it was not a Photoshopped fraud. When I first saw it, I couldn't believe it was real...
Learned a lot since and published as much as could be checked out in time. Right now, I'm trying to get CTU to explain to me what happened during the last two weeks of August, and why there was no "No" vote count at the August 31 House of Delegates meeting. Marilyn's tongue tied, and nobody else over there is talking. Who orchestrated the sellout the pain of which you'll be feeling for another four and a half years?
Or did the CTU "negotiating team" just decide that Charlie Rose and Jim Franczek were suddenly friends of the working man and woman, singing Solidarity Forever all the way to the bank?
Seriously: Who cut the deal for CTU with Daley's union busting lawyers? Stewart? Massarsky? Poltrock?
Seriously also: Who orchestrated the fast shuffle at the House of Delegates meeting (August 31; video still on my website) and then that remarkable referendum count a week later? Have you looked closely at those school-by-school vote counts -- especially the one from your own school if you're in a school?
What "papers" are you talking about that should be covering the "news" about the schools and unions straight?
-- the ones owned by the billionaire Sam Zell that fired (er, bought out) most of its remaining education reporters last year to improve its "bottom line";
-- the one owned by the people who cut a deal with Daley to get their new printing plant on the Chicago River out at 28th St.;
-- or the weekly with the famous history and that prime real estate on Michigan Ave. that just goes around printing PR press releases and mindless praises for Mayor Daley to save dollars on reporters?
Who owns the news and decides what is "news"?
Or maybe the monthly magazine that kisses corporate ____ to keep its grant money flowing by trying to define the respectable limits of debate, while praising every new iteration of corporate "school reform"?
Or the Chicago Union Teacher -- another mouthpiece for Daley News? Every month, at the Board of Education, another dozen or so hacks from City Hall and other reaches of the empire get jobs at CPS (at prime pay, as in the $100,000 and up range) and the Chicago Teachers Union doesn't even mention it. Every month.
Did you notice in the last issue of CUT, Marilyn Stewart spent more time criticizing the union's members -- and no time mentioning that Mayor Daley is behind all the school closings and teacher bashing?
The press is free to those who own it...
How much of the Tribune do you own?
Real World, CTU -- An Update
How come none of this has surfaced in the papers recently?
Real World, CTU -- An Update
8:24
If a child has died my heartfelt sympathy goes to their family. Blind blogging is very easy, isn't it.
If you wish to engage in intelligent conversation regarding the health of children in the schools of Illinois, and then develope a plan to improve the scenerio I am all for it.
Otherwise.....
...... I will continue my mission; protecting the children and school employees of the state of Illinois because I am a healthcare professional who took an oath to practice my profession faithfully and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care. That is my mission. That is where my energy is being used. I will continue in this vain.
The point, tell your legislator to VOTE NO to HB 5960 and SB 2799. The children in the state of Illinois deserve much more.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
[b]Read this and get the message all you CTU staff blogging against the rank and file.[/b]
It is not us standing up for the right of a safe and secure workplace doing wrong.
It is you using our dues money, office equipment and conspiring together to target individuals and topics that do not adhere to your policies of corruption and complicity in the closing of schools.
You are [b]Wrong and Criminal[/b] every time you do not stand up for the rank and file!
Oh by the way even making phone calls from the CTU offices to the BoE making "anonymous" reports against the rank and file could and will land you in the federal penitentiary.
[b]US Dept of Justice IP address blocked[/b]
Wikinews has learned that a United States Department of Justice (DOJ) IP Address has been blocked on Wikipedia after making edits to an article which were considered "vandalism". In two separate instances, the IP address from the DOJ removed information from the Wikipedia article about the organization Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), regarding an attempt by the organization to secretly gain influence on the site. The IP address has been confirmed by Wikinews to be registered and used by the DOJ located in Washington, D.C.
continued @ http://www.mister-info.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=10545&format=html
Real World, CTU -- An Update
We are working on a complete number of displaced brothers and sisters.
If you have information to help compile data please contact me.
If you want to be involved in fighting for our right to a safe and secure work environment contact me.
Your are not alone.
In Unity
Coalition for a Strong Democratic Union
csdu@live.com
Real World, CTU -- An Update
this is the second year that i have lost my position as a pat. it's also the second year that i have found a new position without a break in service. not that the union has done much of anything to help or support me, but i have remained a member throughout. i imagine (and hope) that this will be the case for many of the 650. it's a lousy situation, for sure, but don't count them out yet.
Real World, CTU -- An Update
It is very interesting..you and your masters from the Mart are very effective.....another child died from contagious disease(Austin community)many kids are still out of the compliance ....Sanders you better be quiet.