Teary Eyes & Budget Woes Mark HOD April Meeting
By Jim Vail
The Chicago Teachers Union celebrated a victory and admitted it has a big problem at the House of Delegates meeting Wednesday, April 4.
Once again the CTU President Karen Lewis was missing in action due to health problems.
The CTU political director Stacy Gates did her Academy Award number by shedding tears and saying thanks to the teachers for the great results from primary election day in which two CTU members were elected to political office - Brandon Johnson defeated a charter school lawyer and corporate lobbyist to be Cook County Commissioner, and Back of the Yards College Prep counselor Aaron Ortiz defeated machinist and the brother of Ald. Ed Burke to be State Rep, while the CTU's darling Jesus "Chuy" Garcia was elected to Congress to replace Guiterrez.
However, the celebration - Gates got a few delegates in the crowd to stand up and applaud their appreciation after her speech - was marred earlier when a delegate asked during the opening Q&A period about a $1.4 million loan the union made to the Chuy Garcia mayoral campaign. CTU VP Jesse Sharkey corrected him to say it was $1 million, and the PAC Committee which took the money is paying back the union $100,000 each year.
Sharkey told the delegates that the money was well spent to defeat Mayor Rahm Emanuel's agenda that closed 50 schools in 2013. He said 90 percent of union members said we need to defeat Rahm. At that time the Chicago Board of Education threatened to cut 7% of teachers' paychecks by stop paying into the pension fund. The union was able to stop this in the new contract, however the new teachers have no pension pickup.
Then the sledge hammer slammed down - Sharkey was missing the gavel which usually the president bangs down to start the House of Delegates meeting.
"This will be an extremely difficult budget year," Sharkey said.
The problem is the teachers union did not envision the woes to pile up this year: 1) the upcoming US Supreme Court Janus decision in which members dues will no longer be automatically debited to the CTU, 2) the decline in students in CPS resulting in a 2% decline in teachers so less union dues, 3) one-time costs: the AFT conference $180,000, collective bargaining $450,000 for upcoming new contract negotiations.
The CTU trustees will meet to decide how much they should cut from their budget, and a budget will be presented at the next May HOD meeting, and then voted on in the June end of year HOD meeting.
The CTU recarding effort so that all its members will agree to deduct dues to pay the union has resulted in 17,479 cards resubmitted, but 6,852 members still need to be recarded or else the union could lose their dues monies for membership (roughly $1,000 per year for teachers).
A lot of new delegates joined the union, maybe 50 - 70 delegates stood up at the meeting to acknowledge it was their first meeting.
The union also acknowledged the new charter school delegates who just joined the CTU after the members ratified changes to the constitution which now allows the union to represent charter school teachers.
The CTU said after the Sun-Times ran an expose over the Spring Break about how dirty the CPS schools are, CPS inspected 100 schools and only 30 schools passed. The CTU has a cleanliness survey for its teachers.
Retired delegate Steven Livingston made a resolution motion during the New Business/Q&A period at the end of the meeting entitled Resolution Against U.S. Threats of War and Nuclear Annihilation on North Korea.
The resolution noted that the Trump Administration increased the military budget from 62% of the discretionary federal budget to 68%. That means less money for schools and health to help people, more money for bombs and drones to kill people.
VP Sharkey said once against a resolution made from the floor was out of order (so much for democracy) because it had to go to the human rights committee. Livingston said the human rights committee already rejected it, stating it wasn't focused on education. The delegates voted to support Sharkey's ruling and the motion was killed in the House based on a technicality.
Which is exactly how local, state and federal governments work - the people's agenda to stop wars and increase health care get tabled based on technicalities and buried. Corporate tax breaks and increased military spending that the lobbyists pay for get passed.
By Jim Vail
The Chicago Teachers Union celebrated a victory and admitted it has a big problem at the House of Delegates meeting Wednesday, April 4.
Once again the CTU President Karen Lewis was missing in action due to health problems.
The CTU political director Stacy Gates did her Academy Award number by shedding tears and saying thanks to the teachers for the great results from primary election day in which two CTU members were elected to political office - Brandon Johnson defeated a charter school lawyer and corporate lobbyist to be Cook County Commissioner, and Back of the Yards College Prep counselor Aaron Ortiz defeated machinist and the brother of Ald. Ed Burke to be State Rep, while the CTU's darling Jesus "Chuy" Garcia was elected to Congress to replace Guiterrez.
However, the celebration - Gates got a few delegates in the crowd to stand up and applaud their appreciation after her speech - was marred earlier when a delegate asked during the opening Q&A period about a $1.4 million loan the union made to the Chuy Garcia mayoral campaign. CTU VP Jesse Sharkey corrected him to say it was $1 million, and the PAC Committee which took the money is paying back the union $100,000 each year.
Sharkey told the delegates that the money was well spent to defeat Mayor Rahm Emanuel's agenda that closed 50 schools in 2013. He said 90 percent of union members said we need to defeat Rahm. At that time the Chicago Board of Education threatened to cut 7% of teachers' paychecks by stop paying into the pension fund. The union was able to stop this in the new contract, however the new teachers have no pension pickup.
Then the sledge hammer slammed down - Sharkey was missing the gavel which usually the president bangs down to start the House of Delegates meeting.
"This will be an extremely difficult budget year," Sharkey said.
The problem is the teachers union did not envision the woes to pile up this year: 1) the upcoming US Supreme Court Janus decision in which members dues will no longer be automatically debited to the CTU, 2) the decline in students in CPS resulting in a 2% decline in teachers so less union dues, 3) one-time costs: the AFT conference $180,000, collective bargaining $450,000 for upcoming new contract negotiations.
The CTU trustees will meet to decide how much they should cut from their budget, and a budget will be presented at the next May HOD meeting, and then voted on in the June end of year HOD meeting.
The CTU recarding effort so that all its members will agree to deduct dues to pay the union has resulted in 17,479 cards resubmitted, but 6,852 members still need to be recarded or else the union could lose their dues monies for membership (roughly $1,000 per year for teachers).
A lot of new delegates joined the union, maybe 50 - 70 delegates stood up at the meeting to acknowledge it was their first meeting.
The union also acknowledged the new charter school delegates who just joined the CTU after the members ratified changes to the constitution which now allows the union to represent charter school teachers.
The CTU said after the Sun-Times ran an expose over the Spring Break about how dirty the CPS schools are, CPS inspected 100 schools and only 30 schools passed. The CTU has a cleanliness survey for its teachers.
Retired delegate Steven Livingston made a resolution motion during the New Business/Q&A period at the end of the meeting entitled Resolution Against U.S. Threats of War and Nuclear Annihilation on North Korea.
The resolution noted that the Trump Administration increased the military budget from 62% of the discretionary federal budget to 68%. That means less money for schools and health to help people, more money for bombs and drones to kill people.
VP Sharkey said once against a resolution made from the floor was out of order (so much for democracy) because it had to go to the human rights committee. Livingston said the human rights committee already rejected it, stating it wasn't focused on education. The delegates voted to support Sharkey's ruling and the motion was killed in the House based on a technicality.
Which is exactly how local, state and federal governments work - the people's agenda to stop wars and increase health care get tabled based on technicalities and buried. Corporate tax breaks and increased military spending that the lobbyists pay for get passed.
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