The Chicago Teachers Union strike continues Monday after a failure to resolve the strike, now into its second week with 350,000 children affected by the standoff. There had been some optimism that the union officials, who met Sunday afternoon, would vote in favor of the agreement negotiated on their behalf by CTU president Karen Lewis, but that vote failed to occur.
The Teachers Union has been holding the city hostage with massive demonstrations all last week and into the weekend that snarled traffic and added to the difficulties Chicago residents face as part of the strike.
In response, Mayor Rahm Emanuel threatened to sue the CTU, according to the Chicago Tribune:
Mayor Rahm Emanuel late Sunday called the walkout “illegal” and pledged to seek an injunction in court to force an end to the city’s first teachers strike in a quarter century.
Delegates had met with Lewis for nearly three hours to review the tentative contract that had been brokered after months of negotiation, but ultimately extended the strike instead.
“They’re not happy with the agreement. They’d like it to be a lot better for us than it is,” Lewis said. “This is the deal we got. This is not a good deal by any stretch of the imagination, not (compared) to what our members are (used) to having.”
Lewis said teachers were most fearful of what she called the “elephant in the room,” which is that if the CTU continues with its demands, the city will be forced, financially, to close many of the underperforming schools and put more teachers out of jobs.
At the protest Sunday, many of the various radical groups were lobbying teachers to continue the strike as they sought to broaden the platform of the teachers’ strike as part of their own agendas. At this point, it looks like these groups were successful.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Capture.
Cool! Live by the radical rent-a-mob…DIE by the radical rent-a-mob!!!
And the strike IS ILLEGAL. The demands that are permissible under the law (as I understand) are pretexts for pushing their real demands.
Things are pretty bad when even Rahm Emmanuel doesn’t have your back.
I wonder if part of Emmanuel’s actions are a result of the union pushing his back up against a wall. Even a full bore progressive must face certain fiscal realities. And Rahm has a reputation, reportedly, of having a certain self-image and wanting his Chicago legacy to be positive (I’m being deliberately nice….). So the union has pretty much pinned him and he is one who has always gotten loose, politically, in similar situations.
What the mayor did was allow the teachers to win. The case goes to IL courst whose judges are all Kommiecrat appointed Kommiecrats & have been for decades.
The teachers will win & the mayor & the Punk OTUS can wash their hands
Another “present vote”.
The comment by Karen Lewis in trying to “get” more. How about trying to EARN more. Complaining about not having educators manage the district. Well that has worked real well, heh!! 50% dropout rate, 80% failure rate. Yeah the educators have done real well in running our public schools!! Most, not all are clueless to the real world. What are the teachers doing to improve the education of the students they so cherish??????
Remember, when you combine modern progressive thought with classical socialist (lower case) ideas, you don’t focus on earnings. Hence the abuse of the term ‘fairness’ brought on by this administration. The driver is what is ‘fair’ given what is available. If there is a big pie, the progressives always find a way to demand more of it just because it is in front of them. Chicago is a big pie. They demand more. They are entitled to it.
So, the godfather is unhappy with the unions that he’s espoused all his life, eh? Tough Doo-Doo!!
Just let Chicago spin out of control as a preview to what will happen to this country should we not wake up to the call for sanity.
Ya just gotta luv ’em!
Karen Lewis. A few fries short of 500 pounds
This IS a former teacher, now the president of their union? Shirley You Jest!
What this person SHOULD be doing is, applying for a spot as a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade..
Emmanuel needs to slash wages by 20% and benefits by 40%, while increasing hours by 10%. After that he needs to FIRE the fatties! Forget color, competence or anything else to start with – dump the fatties on the street. There’s nobody who can afford to pay for their health care and sick time. Then institute a reward system for actual (not perceived) performance. Let SAT tests be the standards. The union should be long gone by then, thankfully.
By the way – what in the world is the matter with Karen Lewis hair? It looks like she’s half-bald with her hair braided as you would a 3 year olds. Is this something her psychiatrist advised, or is she off her meds?
You are right on point, my friend.
Me thinks the “hair-do” is a cross between “off her meds”, her black pride and volts or the amps.
On the other hand, radical lefty’s NEED mega doses of volts or amps.
This is somewhat the union’s last stand after Wisconsin. They have put all their chips on the table, and show no fear in putting Emmanuel in a bind. Clearly, he has more cards to play against them. This is so enlightening and informative about modern teacher’s unions and how they have left the progressive ranch, even.
They need to get the students back in school. Just think of the valuable time wasted in providing the little darlings with a Chicago style quality education. s/
It’s hard to distinguish the OWS types from the teachers.
To all stupid lefties.~ Go ahead dumbasses , keep eating your own !
Wanna bet the union leadership is representing themselves, and not all the teachers? Teacher evaluations would open up positions for newer, more competent teachers, and increase the quality of the workforce. Evaluations would also provide the extra “push” needed to get people out of positions they either never were, or are no longer, thrilled with.
There’s an underlying philosophy that the job a person has is unique, and the only thing a person can do. This is stupid. People who are unsuited to continue to teach children are valuable in other settings. It’s true they are attached to any current position that provides well for their families, but clinging to a job that is a bad fit is inefficient and counterproductive, not just for the children, but also for the teacher.
There are many, many people in this country who failed at various positions, often more than one, before finding a good fit, satisfaction and much better remuneration. The path to such success is often painful, but the rewards are significant. Shielding teachers from the consequences of failure in the classroom deprives them of their better future, and deprives us of their enhanced productivity and happiness.
Typical. Another failed democrat government.
Guess what kind of SAT score it takes to complete a BA degree in Education?
The unbounded GREED of chicago (and ALL other) socialist indoctrinators (what used to be jokingly called “teachers”):
– Turn Down $400 Million Deal, 16% Pay Raise…
– Have Highest Average Salary In Nation…
– Average $76,000 per year (highest salary in the US in ANY major city) before benefits…
– Before any further salary raise, they’re paid $8450 / month of their limited work-year, while the average American worker gets $3915 / month.
– Work the shortest time per year of teachers in any major US city…
– Get humongous, gold-plated benefits far in excess of anything offered in the private sector…
– 79% of Chicago 8th Graders “Not Proficient in Reading”…
Of course Godfather Rahmbo, like the OBOZOs and nearly 40% of chicago public school “teachers”, sends his kids to an exclusive, $25,000 per year per student, non-public school so they can actually get an education, instead of just the socialist indoctrination and bs spewed out in public schools.
Remember, “it’s for the children”
What’s not discussed in the news stories is that the Chicago School District is facing a large budget deficit going into future years. In the past, they counted on the state to give them more money, but that gravy train has stopped IMO. IL Gov. Quinn & the state legislature in Springfield, although D’s, are running substantial deficits and cannot pony up more money. They already tried raising taxes last year, and they still have a deficit. That means the School District will face substantial layoffs and school closings.
The higher they manage to negotiate their compensation, the more teachers will be laid off. They do it by seniority: the last hired are the first fired. So that creates some strife within the ranks of the teachers. Also, the IL voters surely will get tired of the whole mess at some point, just as they did in Wisconsin. Only question is, “When does it all unravel?”
By striking, the union is expressing the “Chicago values” that Rahm said that Chick-fil-A doesn’t have. The union is out for itself and damn the children.
Everyone here so far, including Ms. Sorock, is missing something big.
Why is Rahm asking the courts to end the strike?
Think about that. Rahm wants the local court system to rule that the strike is illegal and must end, or that the teachers must return to work while their delegates consider the contract offer.
Why?
Why doesn’t Rahm bludgeon them? Go to the press and tee off on them? Demand forcefully that the strike end? Inform the press and public that he stands with the school board? Why doesn’t Rahm find a way to order the union back to work himself?
Why pass the buck to the courts?
The question answers itself. Rahm doesn’t want his fingerprints on this if he can possibly help it. He wants someone else to end the strike so that a potential problem for himself and his former boss can be swept under the rug before election day.
Imagine if the strike continues. Suppose Ms. Lewis and the union (let’s say) decide to hold out another month for more, more, more. Guess how that’s going to play as we get close to Election Day.
But the Democrats can’t break the strike themselves since they are the (captured) party of unions, particularly public employee unions. If Rahm breaks the strike he’ll be toast for each and every election in the future. It would imperil Champ: either he backs Rahm or he backs the union. Notice how quiet Champ has been on this one?
So let’s get a judge to do it. Let’s blame the courts.
That’s what no one is talking about so far.
Time for a Ronald Reagan moment. I don’t know what steps would be required and I don’t think for a second that Rahm has the stones to do it, but this is my solution:
Disband the union and FIRE THEM ALL. You still want to teach ? Great. The CPS is now accepting applications for employment at will teachers.