Mary Sharon Reilley was re-elected Chicago Teachers Union 'Retiree Functional Vice President', but... More than a week after the votes were counted, CTU is still keeping the results of the retiree vice president election from the union's members...
Chicago Teachers Union financial secretary Maria Moreno (left above) has failed to inform the union's members -- especially the retiree members -- of the results of the runoff election between Mary Sharon Reilly and Patricia Knazze, despite the fact that the votes were counted on March 22, 2017. Reilly won overwhelmingly despite the attempt by CTU President Karen Lewis to dictate the endorsement of Knazze within the union's CORE caucus. Reilly won in a landslide, even though CORE did an expensive mailing announcing that CORE and Lewis were asking retirees to vote for Knazze.More than a week after the Chicago Teachers Union's Rules-Election Committee counted the votes in the runoff for the post of "Retiree Functional Vice President," the union leadership has still refused to inform the union's 26,000 members about the results of the election, which saw incumbent Mary Sharon Reilly re-elected to the executive board position in a landslide. The runoff in March 2017 came about as a result of the vast number of candidates in the original election, which was held in February.
The votes in the runoff, which were counted and certified by the Rules-Election Committee on March 22, 2017, were as follows:
841 for Mary Sharon Reilly
602 for Patricia A Knazze
Nine members of the Committee were present and did the counting of the votes. As usual, candidates had the right to observe the vote counting. What is unusual is the fact that the CTU officer responsible for notifying the members about the results of elections has for more than a week failed to do so. Maria Moreno, CTU Financial Secretary, is in charge of that duty. Moreno didn't even have the courtesy to inform the winner of the election, Mary Sharon Reilly, that she had been re-elected to the position, which includes a seat on the union Executive Board. As of this report (March 30, 2017) the CTU officers are still not letting the members know the facts of this important election. CTU has more than 3,000 retiree members, and the voting for "Retiree Functional Vice President" was heated and involved the leaders of the CORE caucus pitted against many of the caucus's own members.
Mary Sharon Reilly (above) was re-elected "Retiree Functional Vice President" in a runoff held in March 2017. Reilly is also a trustee of the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund (CTPF) and an elected retiree delegate to the CTU House of Delegates. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.The confrontation took place when the CORE Steering Committee brought the endorsement to the January 2017 CORE membership meeting without consulting CORE's retiree members. The Steering Committee's edict was that Patricia Knazze would be the "CORE endorsed" candidate. Despite resistance from the majority of CORE retiree members, the caucus's leadership pushed through the Knazze endorsement. Any CORE member who wanted to run for that position (as I did) was threatened with being kicked out of the caucus. As a result, a number of us withdrew our candidacies, after making protests on the un-democratic manner in which the CORE Steering Committee announced its edict rather than holding a candidates' debate at a CORE meeting.
Reilly's overwhelming vote must have stunned the CORE leadership, but still does not explain why union officials have for more than a week been effectively covering up the news. After the first round of voting, the union sent out an email and letter to all retiree members listing the number of votes each candidate had received. As of March 29, 2017, no such letter had been received by any retiree CTU member polled by this reporter. Nor has this important election result been reported on the union's website.
The CTU Constitution and By Laws provide that "functional vice presidents" be elected for every major group within the massive (26,000 members) union. All groups elect on "functional vice president" for each 1,000 dues paying members or part thereof, so that high school teachers and elementary teachers each elect several "functional vice presidents." The vice presidents serve on the union's 46-member Executive Board, which is supposed to meet regular to manage union affairs and set the agenda for the union's monthly House of Delegates meetings. The reason for the "functional group" structure is that the union's founders wanted to make certain that the voices of the union's many diverse members were heard at every level, and to guard against a tendency of the union's elected officers (currently four people) and the union's full-time staff to dictate union policy and activities against the interests of the members.
The current executive board consists almost exclusively of members of the CORE caucus, and many of the "functional vice presidents" don't even know that their primary job is supposed to be to represent their functional group members. Many of those currently on the executive board, like their counterparts of the CORE Steering Committee, are being accused lately of serving as rubber stamps for the union's officers and organizing staff.
Reilly was not a member of any caucus at the time of the runoff race. Knazze was the endorsed CORE candidate, and CORE had done a mailing on behalf of her candidacy before the first voting. Retirees who has wished to run for the position (including this reporter) were warned by CORE chairman Sarah Chambers that they would be kicked out of the caucus if they left their names in the running in the first round of voting. (As a result, I and others withdrew our candidacies, in my case despite the fact that I had been the CORE endorsed candidates in the previous election).
The retiree functional group is the only "functional group" in the CTU that does not get one vice president for each 1,000 dues paying members. As of now, the retiree group receives only one vice president, no matter how many retiree CTU members there are. Many observers now feel that the reason why such a small percentage of retired teachers join the CTU (despite low retiree dues) is that the union's leadership has been disrespecting retirees in a number of ways.
Substance will report when the union finally tells its members that the retiree election has been held and the vote results. The union's Executive Board meets on Monday, April 3, 2017, and Reilly is expected to be seated at that meeting whether or not the union's officers have officially informed the members of these facts.
