The Chicago Teachers Union, after a summer of threats and miscellaneous protest actions, announced a date for their strike of September 10 this Thursday. CTU released a copy of their resolution on the website:
The strike is necessary to achieve a labor contract with acceptable wages, benefits and job protections; and for all other purposes for which a strike is authorized under law. The strike is also necessary to protest unfair labor practices committed by CPS against our membership.
The move is the latest in a series of threats the union has leveled against the Mayor. The Chicago Sun-Times reported on CTU president Karen Lewis’s reaction:
Lewis said Chicago Public School officials have not budged from the “last, best” salary and wage offer they placed in May before a fact finder who ultimately declared the relationship between the two sides “toxic.’’
At that time, the CPS was offering four years of two percent raises and the halt of all “step and lane’’ salary bumps for seniority and credentials.
Teachers have derided the offer as “insulting,’’ contending it does not reflect the 4 percent negotiated raise they were denied this past school year and the 10 extra days they are being required to work this school year.
In the meantime, Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to skirt out of town to speak at the upcoming DNC Convention.
It is remarkable that the DNC would choose to highlight Mayor Emanuel’s record: a wartorn city, teachers on strike, and the bold agenda to spend $91M on protected bike lanes for the 1 percent of Chicagoans that bike to work.
Revealing priorities at the DNC.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Never let a good Ballon go used
Never let a party go to waste when you can use it for leverage!
Last I’d read, the average CPS salary was $71K, they wanted $90K. That’s a nine month job where you retire at 55 with big pension and benefits. Oh, and it is nearly impossible to ever fire anyone, no matter how incompetent (and there are plenty of incompetents, pushed ahead based only on seniority).
So they have a monopoly, tax money is taken at gunpoint whether you have kids in public school or not, but they demand whatever they want since they have the politicians’ head in a vice. But that’s not enough, so now they will torture the kids too.
Perfect timing for the elections, though Illinois will still be stuck with a Democrat Chicago based majority. But these contracts and pensions should be invalidated for all the coercion and collusion. Bring in a fresh batch … maybe returning troops want to teach kids. They’ve got enough training and discipline.
This is a real opportunity for Romney and Ryan to rip the hide off Obama, Sandra Fluke, Barbara Boxer, E-Coli Nancy Pelosi and all the other clueless Democrats who laughably accuse Romney and Ryan of being from the Dark Ages when it comes to women.
$91 Million being spent on Yuppy Bicycle Infrastructure? There’s real pain at the gasoline pump and American women—I’m talking about the ones who still have a job–are actually trying to work two jobs—home and office—and every time they fill up their gas tanks it’s getting closer to $100.
How exactly do Sandra Fluke, the Reproductive Rights Activist, and the Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, look in the faces of American Democratic women in Charlotte and explain that if they happen to be lucky enough to be survivor veterans from the “Republican War on Women,” they can start researching how a bicycle traveling over multi-million dollar bicycle lanes is going to get them and their families to work, to school, to doctors,and then home again. Forget packing a backpack or a laptop let alone a trunk full of necessities for babies or elders. Has anyone invented a bicycle accessory that lets you pack a wheelchair or a Walker onto the back of a bicycle that transports a family of 4? Yuppie Bicycle Infrastructure may work for Obama sycophants who sip cafe lattes in DC, NYC and San Francisco but it’s not going to cut it for real working women who have to juggle more than looking good in Spandex.
If I were Romney and Ryan I would get some great looking Democrat women in Spandex and ask them on video who they’re voting for and why. It should go over really well in South Florida with the Century Village Seniors worried about Obamacare causing 700 Billion in Medicare cuts.
Great-looking Democratic women? You’d have better luck hiring Bigfoot or finding paisley unicorns up Michael Moore’s ass. If you want results, hire some Hooter’s girls or bikini models instead.
😆
This comparison between Mia Love and Sandra the Fluke sort of sums up the argument if you ask me.
http://wolffiles.blogspot.com/2012/08/who-do-you-want-to-be-your-daughters.html
Well, at least their slogan “think of the children” has been revealed to be a fraud. That’s one less emotional appeal they will be capable of legitimately wielding. With each passing day, they lose the high ground.
They are committing “authorized” extortion of taxpayers. There is a reason why traditionally, both Democrats and Republicans oppose the “authority” of public unions. These civil servants cannot be permitted to bypass the representative process and hold the government hostage.
Flat broke and the “teachers” are striking for more loot.
Fire them all.
Bring on school choice and see how long these dip-sh!ts man the barricades.
Bike lanes? In Obama’s economy everybody has to peddle their asses on the street.
“spend $91M on protected bike lanes”
Pfft, nothing. Here in CA, we’re going to spend a couple billion on infrastructure for Hydrogen refueling stations.
It’s like there is a contest over who is the most wasteful and extravagant spender. Illinois. Will. Not. Win. 🙁
http://hjta.org/hot-topic/taxpayer-red-alert-vote-no-sb-1455-2-billion-tax-extension__
Get the message behind the message with the CTU’s threatened strike: they don’t like or respect Rahm. The message isn’t about the children or even their contract. Their message is that they’re going to test Rahm.
They didn’t particularly like Richie Short-Shanks, but they respected him; rather, they respected what he could and WOULD do to them if they misbehaved. He threw a few tokens at them and they took it, because Richie ran most everything there was worth running in Chicago, having consolidated (especially with his brother Bill helping him) more power than even his dad had.
But Rahm has spent most of his adult life pissing people off. It’s a character trait for him, one that he enjoys, strokes and cultivates, and I suppose it was fine as a congressman, chief of staff and Democratic operative and skull-collector. But as an executive? Mayor of a big city? Where the buck stops?
Then it’s a character trait that leads to disaster. Aides won’t tell him what he needs to hear. Friends start to edge away. Political brokers start to test the wind. Enemies start to coalesce around him.
The CTU has figured something out: Obama is NOT GOING TO WIN. They won’t ever say it, of course. But they know that in January, Rahm is no longer big heat in Washington. And he’s made a lot of enemies in Chicago.
It helps of course that the CTU is even more left-leaning these days than the SEIU. There are plenty of quiet connections with the Ayers-folks and the ACORN types. Those folks don’t like Rahm, because Rahm is all about sausage making and taking the choicest cuts for himself and his pals. He’s not committed to the cause; never has been.
So the CTU has decided to test the waters. See if they can take Rahm on. See if they can lock in one more contract, one more pension sweetener, one more set of union rules to protect themselves before the deluge. Why not?
Heh, I forgot about Shortshanks! While Kass is not Royko, he has some great names! If Tiny Dancer had REAL toe shoes, he would pull a Reagan and bring in substitute teachers.
But he only has soft shoes.
The important question isn’t about the politics of it, although I agree it’s a disgraceful situation made worse by Democrats.
What really matters is: “What effect will a prolonged strike by the Chicago Teachers Union have on the quality of education in that city, if any?”
This seems to keep being under the radar, but the bicycle nonsense is extremely important to the left — it encourages childish dependence in adults, especially in 20-somethings. Think about someone who has no ambition to work to own a car — what business will they ever be able to form? How far can the ever travel without being dependent on public transportation?
Think of this picture: a 20-year old someone, working a menial job, having nothing but a bike to ride wherever they go, and spending their last dime on an iPhone — which is beams in their entire limited and manipulated world view.
The left’s next target is the suburbs. In fact, CA governor Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown and his co-lunatics in CA government are working that as I write this. The multi-billion dollar ‘bullet’ train to nowhere that broke CA politicians are spending CA’s last dime on is evidence of that.
Leftist elitists want an unambitious, very highly controlled populace, that they can loot to support their own spending habits. It’s hard to control people who have the means to develop ideas and ambition.
So, if you can do, teach. If you can’t teach, become a crooked leftist politician.
[…] Chicago Teachers Union authorizes strike as Rahm heads to DNC Posted by Anne Sorock Friday, August 31, 2012 at 5:35pm […]
Given Chicago’s weather (I’m a native), even the 1% who bike to work won’t be doing much of that from November through March.