Voting in all Chicago schools Friday, November 4... Substance joins CTU executive board, CORE, and CTU leaders in backing Padilla and Wohl for pension trustee
The editors and staff of Substance urge Chicago teachers and retired teachers to vote for Tina Padilla and Ray Wohl for the two vacant trustee positions on the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund and for Lois Nelson, Jack Silver, and Jim Ward for the three positions open for retiree trustees in the hotly contested elections being held this week and next week.
The final pension election flyer for the two CORE and Substance endorsed candidates for teacher pension fund trustees can also be downloaded from the CORE website, www.coreteachers.org.The teacher votes will take place in all Chicago public schools (including charter schools) on Friday, November 4. CORE members have been distributing literature on behalf of their endorsed candidates at schools across Chicago, with a strong push on for the week of October 31, 2011 - November 4, 2011.
"We can't afford to go back to those people who compromised against us — or worse — in the past," said Substance reporter and retiree union delegate George Schmidt. "It's incredible to me that qualified candidates should even have to be battling for these spots against candidates whose political affiliations and past practice have exposed them already. We have to really make sure that everyone knows about the election, about the voting times in their schools, and about who are the best candidates."
CORE has produced videos of Tina Padilla and Ray Wohl which pension voters can view at the CORE website. The URL that takes one directly to the videos and other election materials is http://coreteachers.com/pensions/
The electioneering became more intense during the final week before the voting, when thousands of Chicago Teachers Union members received an email blast from the United Progressive Caucus endorsing two other candidates. According to union sources, the email, which was not authorized by the union, came because someone from the former union leadership took the union's email list before the new union leadership, headed by CTU President Karen Lewis, took office on July 1, 2010.
"This stuff was typical of the way the old regime has always conducted itself," said Substance investigative reporter George Schmidt. "The majority of teachers who received that email were supposed to get the impression that it had come from the union on behalf of the union for those two candidates. As usual, the union members were being lied to by one faction within the union."
The two candidates endorsed by Substance (and CORE, the CTU executive board, and president Karen Lewis) are both veteran teachers who have been active in school and union politics. "We covered Ray Wohl's work going back years," said Schmidt. "He led the fight on behalf of the old Irving Park Middle School against the closing and consolidation of the school. His work in the House of Delegates earned him praise for years, and recently his activism has been a joy to watch."
Tina Padilla's experience and education in finance and mathematics are highlighted in the video now at the CORE website. She has also been at pension trustee meetings and has been following the attacks on the pension fund, most recently in Springfield.
CORE members will be leafleting and distributing election materials in the schools all week. CORE is also doing phone banking on Tuesday evening, November 5, at two locations, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
CORE has invited teachers and others to an election night party on Friday, November 4, 2011, at Reggie's Bar, 2105 S. State St., beginning at 5:30 p.m. George Schmidt and Al Ramirez will be watching the vote counting on behalf of the candidates at the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund offices at 203 N. LaSalle St. beginning Friday afternoon and will call in the final results as soon as the vote counting is completed. The votes are counted at the CTPF offices, but the election is done completely by an independent contractor hired by CTPF. "I watched the counting in 2010, when Jay and Lois won," said Schmidt, "and the entire election process is professionally done and with complete integrity."
Substance is also urging the retiree voters to vote for three candidates: Lois Nelson, Jack Silver, and Jim Ward. Retiree voting is currently being done by mail ballot (retirees are across the planet) and the retiree ballots will be counted by November 7. The trustees who are elected will help govern the $10 billion pension fund, which is run by 12 trustees, ten of whom are elected.
