The talk is about 'accountability,' but at the bargaining table only a couple of CTU officers and the lawyers are really doing the bargaining as the contract stalling begins its second year...
The President and Vice President of the Chicago Teachers Union, Karen Lewis (left) and Jesse Sharkey (right) stand in front of the "CPS BROKE ON PURPOSE" logo that the union unfurled in the summer of 2015, thereby joining the union's fortunes (and collective bargaining future) with the claims about public school financing of the Chicago Board of Education and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.It's now been more than a year since the Chicago Teachers Union's contract expired and a faction of the union leadership declared, through the words of union president Karen Lewis, that the union would continue to surrender the contractual rights of its dues-paying members on behalf of building a so-called "movement" that was never voted upon by anyone. And despite dozens of protests large and small, lobbying in Springfield, and an unprecedented one-day April Fool's Day "strike," a growing number of the union's members is asking -- some demanding -- to know just what is going on behind all the talk about democracy, "accountability," and something some call "troublemaker" unionism.
And as the new school year looms, the Chicago Teachers Unions official website doesn't even include all of the resolutions the the union's 800-member House of Delegates have voted to approve, many after serious debate. Nor can the union's members find complete reports on the monthly meetings of the most democratic body in Chicago's public schools, the CTU House of Delegates. The "talk" is all about democracy and so-called "transparency." The "walk," though, has been in the opposite direction for a long time.
By: George Cruz
Contract Talks
I've been informed by certain CTU people on the big bargaining team that no real progress or movement has been made in the current contract talks. The media mentioned that during this week both sides would continue talks. But this is getting ridiculous on the long drag out strategy by CPS. In fact during the 2012 strike the VP of the CTU stated that more contract progress was made during the strike than in the one year of negotiating . What does that tell you? It basically means CPS strategy is to deliberately kick the can down the road and delay, delay , delay until contract talks are pushed into mid year AGAIN!
Come late August if no real substantive progress is made, than the CTU needs to give their two week strike notice and force the main issues that CPS is deliberatly avoiding! I would only hope, that the CTU doesn't cave in on the pension , healthcare and evaluation cut off scores and disappoint its members like in the last 2012 strike. The media might've declared Rahm had lost but in reality the teachers lost by giving back so much that it has crippled the CTU effectiveness to protect its own members.