As CPS prepares to close a record number of schools, the fate of students and communities is in question.
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Strike authorization vote to start Wednesday
By: Rebecca Harris / June 01, 2012
The Chicago Teachers Union officials will kick off a strike-authorization vote this Wednesday, and allow it to continue “until there is a clear result one way or the other.”
Holding the vote over a multiple-day period will help the union garner more participation. Under a new law, at least 75 percent of all union members must authorize a strike potential strike.
Any final decision on a walkout would be made by the union’s House of Delegates. By law, though, that can’t happen until after an independent fact-finding panel has recommended a settlement and publicized its findings. The panel’s findings are due in mid-July. For a timeline of the negotiations so far, click here.
CPS released a statement Friday evening saying that a vote “would only hurt our kids and our community.” CPS officials have emphatically argued that a strike authorization vote should not happen until after the fact-finder releases his report and the process is allowed to play out.
But CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey has said the requirement that 75 percent of all members approve a strike, rather than the majority of voters, has pushed the union to call a vote early.
During the summer, it would be difficult to pull in all members to vote, he has said.
"This is a vote that essentially puts 30,000 members at the bargaining table with us,” Sharkey said. “It’s a reaction to what we see as unreasonable proposals.”
Further, union president Karen Lewis pointed out Friday that the fact-finding panel can only make recommendations about a limited number of issues, primarily compensation. She said that CTU asked CPS to let the panel deal with broader educational issues, but CPS said no. If either side rejects the settlement proposed by the panel, the union must wait 30 days before it can strike.
At a CTU press conference on Friday, parents stood with teachers and noted a wide range of issues they said CPS had been unwilling to address in contract negotiations. They included a lack of funding for longer-day recess aides (possibly forcing teachers to take on that duty); oversize classes; schools’ lack of air conditioning; a shortage of social workers and other clinicians; and a dearth of money for more art, music, physical education and library teachers.
Trish O’Shea, a preschool teacher at Dunne Tech Academy in Roseland, said that “there are days when learning in our classroom is almost impossible” because the temperature reaches 100 degrees or above.
“The union has proposed air conditioning all schools for all kids, and the Board has rejected that,” she said.
Becky Malone, of 19th Ward Parents, said her group supported the union.
“They are expected to guide our brightest young minds, but their hands are tied by a city that does not respect them or what they do,” she said.
But Mary Anderson, executive director of Stand for Children Illinois, reiterated her group’s past criticism of a strike authorization vote. She says the union is “holding our students’ education hostage in order to score political points.”
“Asking teachers to decide right now whether to strike, when they have no information… is completely unfair to those teachers and it’s unfair to students,” Anderson says. “It’s completely against the spirit of Senate Bill 7. This is a process CTU agreed to; they were at the table.”
Stand for Children has started an online petition against the strike authorization vote and a “Collective Bargaining 101” website for parents. Stand for Children leadership lobbied for Senate Bill 7 which established the new process that the union must undertake before calling a strike.
Lewis fired back at criticisms of the vote at the press conference. “State law does not prohibit us from taking a strike authorization vote now, and does not require us to wait until after fact-finding,” she said.
She also blamed Senate Bill 7 for increasing teacher strikes around the state, saying it has emboldened districts to enforce “draconian” policies against teachers.
Adam Geisler, a delegate at Bateman Elementary, says part of the problem is that CPS is asking teachers to try too many new initiatives, too quickly, without proof that they will work. He says the extended day and year, the Common Core State Standards, network reorganizations, and new teacher evaluations that will factor in student performance are all adding to teachers’ workload.
“Teachers are, frankly, overwhelmed, and feel like they’re not being treated with professional respect in terms of these decisions,” Geisler says. “The strike-authorization vote is simply a way for us to exert our influence… (at a time when) teachers and students are being used as pawns in education reform that has no research behind it.”
to urban teach
You hit it on the head. Who wants their kid to be a potential bonus just because they can raise their scores. I think teachers are going to literally start "hedging their bets" on kids. Just doing that Batelleforkids website made me realize...cps has LOST IT
CTU Members--many principals and assistant principals are
behind you. We have no union and they have been and continue peeling us like onions with no stopping it. JC has been totally disrespectful towards us and you--Example, his mandatory meeting today, which took HOURS to get to and from Chicago State, was nothing but platitudes with no substance. Other than saying Vallas talks a lot, (trying to be funny). There was nothing that guaranteed any support for any power point section presented. It even had grammatical errors! A webinar would have been fine. Since you have someone driving you around, you do not worry about traffic or that you have to leave your school when all the summer bridge letters had to go out today and unhappy parents are waiting to see you, not the CEO. You tell them you cannot meet with them due to the CEO mandatory meeting. You see, NO understanding of what is happening in our schools right now. CEO always says he was a teacher and comes from a family of teachers--well, I bet they would vote on Wednesday to strike! We are sick of the lies and the rip-offs. Good luck these next few days.
CTU Members--many principals and assistant principals
are behind you. We have no union and they have been and continue peeling us like onions with no stopping it. JC has been totally disrespectful towards us and you--Example, his mandatory meeting today, which took HOURS to get to and from Chicago State, was nothing but platitudes with no substance. Other than saying Vallas talks a lot, (trying to be funny). There was nothing that guaranteed any support for any power point section presented. It even had grammatical errors! A webinar would have been fine. Since you have someone driving you around, you do not worry about traffic or that you have to leave your school when all the summer bridge letters had to go out today and unhappy parents are waiting to see you, not the CEO. You tell them you cannot meet with them due to the CEO mandatory meeting. You see, NO understanding of what is happening in our schools right now. CEO always says he was a teacher and comes from a family of teachers--well, I bet they would vote on Wednesday to strike! We are sick of the lies and the rip-offs. Good luck these next few days.
yes
yes
'Guess Who' guesses wrong... and Wigler is back
Ed, good morning.
One of the nice things about commenting on a blog and signing my own name is that I hear more from real people, rather than slipping into that sludge swamp of anonymous, pseudonymous and similar slimings.
Ed, you ought to share some strike stories here, since a lot of the young readers of this thread and others weren't even born when we were marching around Lane Tech and similarly elsewhere. I am looking for pictures of Mike Prunicki and others from those days...
Now to here, and 2012...
"Guess Who" will never simmer down, and I'd love to see a face-to-face between you and himherit...
But we really don't need him to do what we are doing this week. "Guess..." will keep repeating nonsense like STRIKE WHEN YOU CAN'T SO THE BOSS CAN BREAK YOU!!! instead of a carefully developed strategy that we can all get behind. One of the things nice about this week, although everyone will end it very tired, is that we are marching on a clear line of march together again, and with serious leadership. Everyone who screams about all the things we should have done a year ago or so is either ignoring the key facts or falsifying them. (In the case of "Guess..." the latter).
That crowd really wanted us to walk into a trap and get massacred. They are freaking out now that we're avoiding the traps and preparing for the biggest teacher strike of the 21st Century.
But let's be realistic — 'Guess...' isn't the only Troll wiggling and pontificating out there this morning.
My favorite is the Wiggles...
As I will be reporting at dawn, Marc Wigler, the former CTU member (and for several years, staff member at the union offices, courtesy of Marilyn Stewart) erupted in an email Sunday night advising his "fellow" union members to vote No this week.
Somehow, it hasn't gotten to him that he is no longer a union member and has been expelled for life. But...
'Guess...' is from that same side of things as Wigler.
One of the interesting things about the Wigler's latest verbal ejaculation, however, is that even his former fellow travelers in the UPC are making space between his eruptions and their flimsy future. Although we won't know until we can read the school-by-school votings on this week's voting, I think the UPC will be pulling strongly for the leadership, just like everyone else. (If not, it will be easy enough to know).
Last night at the CTU it sounded like the next time Wigler wanders around, even his once closest buddies in the UPC will be saying "Marc Who?"
That's a fitting fate for a boss's spy who every day becomes closer to being a scab, too.
To Big FAT George
Someone needs to fire George Again.
To Ed, you got screwed by your own union president now don't you feel stupid? As far as being a scab, I'd rather be a scab than stand with a bunch of communist, socialist liars. You union people like to attack other union caucuses and other union members. Go ahead so CPS can read about how dysfunctional the union is. Wigler's hatred for you has nothing to do with him being a scab. Many teachers despise this crazy union leadership and will do anything to get you people out. Anyone that has any sense knows what this leadership is about., absolutely nothing but helping teachers to get fired.
Scab?
I come from a union family. Scab is the worst thing you can call someone, so to say you would rather be a scab tells us everything we need to know about you and the wigglers of the world. You hate Karen Lewis so much you would destroy the whole union to get even with her. Well, a lot of us think she is tough, smart and just what we need right now. Go haunt a house, Guess Who.
Hi Scab
No one hates Karen. It's the people around her that advise her that are hated, scab. By the way, the union is busted and the teachers can thank you idiots for selling out. You are a not a unionist but a coward. You're a scab an a union busting scab at that. By the way, normal people are buying that scab nonsense, because of people like you, The union is powerless and you helped to make one of the most powerful unions in the country a national
joke.
What is Going on Here????
This must stop. I don't think anyone writing here has the better interest of teachers , the union or students in mind. It is in poor taste for the union infighting to be aired in a public place. Trust me, I learned that it only weakens the fight for teachers collective bargaining rights. However, I am curious, why so much attack on union and former union members? Haven't these people paid dues for years and supported the union? I do not understand this level of disrespect given to teachers who were once union members and through some attack on them by CPS, they have lost their union membership as well. Why then would CTU employees or agents operating on their behalf engage in conversations like this on a blog?
By the way CTU, at our CAUSE meeting we discussed the strike authorization vote. CAUSE supports voting YES on the strike authorization as it is the only way to prevent further erosion of teachers collective bargaining rights. This is our official position. Our prayers are with the teachers of Chicago.
You're ready? Good for you.
You're ready? Good for you. Strike...a better teacher will replace you.
Awww...and wouldn't that make
Awww...and wouldn't that make you so very happy. Close to half of a million children locked out of the classroom, but you're excited because people will have to eat crow. Pathetic.
Just wondering...
Is this an adult?
Anonymous Coward
If the strike autorization vote succeeds it does not mean a strike, genious. But some people insisted the 75% hurdle was impossible, and they will have to eat crow. Anonymous cowards will have to eat something else.
"the adults are the problem."
"The children are not the problem," Rhee said, "the adults are the problem."
Michelle A. Rhee, former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor,
Tru dat Mark.
Tru dat Mark.
Michelle Rhee is the problem
Michelle Rhee set up a disaster and then took off.
michelle rhee quote
Dont forget my favorite: it's on tape!!
On one particularly rowdy day, she said she decided to place little pieces of masking tape on their lips for the trip to the school cafeteria for lunch.
“OK kids, we’re going to do something special today!” she said she told them.
Rhee said it worked well until they actually arrived at the cafeteria. “I was like, ‘OK, take the tape off. I realized I had not told the kids to lick their lips beforehand. …The skin is coming off their lips and they’re bleeding. Thirty-five kids were crying.”
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