Chicago Teachers Union Contract Fight
By Jim Vail
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is playing the game before we vote on a new contract.
That game is verbally battling the mayor to show the union is tough about protecting its teachers and getting the best deal for a new contract.
Despite the harsh words for new Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who defeated the union-backed candidate Toni Preckwinkle, the CTU has said little to nothing about going on strike.
Compare that rhetoric to 2011 when the recently CORE-elected CTU went to war against former Mayor Rahm Emanuel and immediately had its members thinking and breathing a strike. We had the strike vote, and then walked the picket lines. It took massive organizing effort to pull it off.
This time the union is saying they are trying to settle their contract with the Board of Education. Except the Mayor has stolen some of the thunder from the union by coming up with their own sustainable community schools support announcement, and said they will hire more teaching assistants and nurses that the union wants, but is quiet on how to pay for it, and who they will be (union or non-union).
The union has already factored into its own budget a 2.5 percent raise for teachers, which they are telling the media is not enough because the Mayor wants to increase health care costs to offset the raise.
The CTU says it wants class size reductions, more special education services, nurses, social workers, counselors and pay increases for clerks and teacher assistants.
The CTU is also trying to connect the dots for people to say Mayor Lightfootś bargaining team is the same team that Mayor Rahm Emanuel used. It is typical badgering going back and forth, until the final hour when the union officers led by President Jesse Sharkey and Mayor Lightfoot or her representative sit down and agree on a last minute deal that both hail as something wonderful for the students and teachers in Chicago.
The next union action will be a rally, press conference and board presentation at the next Chicago Public Schools board of education meeting Aug. 28.
Social media is buzzing now on Facebook about what teachers want to see in the new contract. The bottom line is you need an army to fight another army. In this case, there is an organized opposition to the CORE lead CTU, and that is Members First. They earned 5,000 votes in the last election, CORE won 10,000 votes, while 10,000 CTU members did not vote.
Members First is still active and is looking closely at what was lost in the last contract. That has CTU officers nervous about the kind of deal they can make with the Mayor.
By Jim Vail
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is playing the game before we vote on a new contract.
That game is verbally battling the mayor to show the union is tough about protecting its teachers and getting the best deal for a new contract.
Despite the harsh words for new Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who defeated the union-backed candidate Toni Preckwinkle, the CTU has said little to nothing about going on strike.
Compare that rhetoric to 2011 when the recently CORE-elected CTU went to war against former Mayor Rahm Emanuel and immediately had its members thinking and breathing a strike. We had the strike vote, and then walked the picket lines. It took massive organizing effort to pull it off.
This time the union is saying they are trying to settle their contract with the Board of Education. Except the Mayor has stolen some of the thunder from the union by coming up with their own sustainable community schools support announcement, and said they will hire more teaching assistants and nurses that the union wants, but is quiet on how to pay for it, and who they will be (union or non-union).
The union has already factored into its own budget a 2.5 percent raise for teachers, which they are telling the media is not enough because the Mayor wants to increase health care costs to offset the raise.
The CTU says it wants class size reductions, more special education services, nurses, social workers, counselors and pay increases for clerks and teacher assistants.
The CTU is also trying to connect the dots for people to say Mayor Lightfootś bargaining team is the same team that Mayor Rahm Emanuel used. It is typical badgering going back and forth, until the final hour when the union officers led by President Jesse Sharkey and Mayor Lightfoot or her representative sit down and agree on a last minute deal that both hail as something wonderful for the students and teachers in Chicago.
The next union action will be a rally, press conference and board presentation at the next Chicago Public Schools board of education meeting Aug. 28.
Social media is buzzing now on Facebook about what teachers want to see in the new contract. The bottom line is you need an army to fight another army. In this case, there is an organized opposition to the CORE lead CTU, and that is Members First. They earned 5,000 votes in the last election, CORE won 10,000 votes, while 10,000 CTU members did not vote.
Members First is still active and is looking closely at what was lost in the last contract. That has CTU officers nervous about the kind of deal they can make with the Mayor.
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