Showing posts with label Victory to the Chicago Teachers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Victory to the Chicago Teachers. Show all posts
Sunday, October 07, 2012
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
From The "Huffington Post"-Chicago Teachers Strike Ends: Union Moves To Suspend Strike After 7 Days -Victory To The Chicago Teachers Union!
Chicago Teachers Strike Ends: Union Moves To Suspend Strike After 7 Days (PHOTOS, LIVE UPDATES)
By SOPHIA TAREEN 09/18/12 05:32 PM ET
Striking Chicago public school teachers picket outside of the Jose De Diego Community Academy on September 17, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. More than 26,000 teachers and support staff walked off of their jobs on September 10 after the Chicago Teachers Union failed to reach an agreement with the city on compensation, benefits and job security. With about 350,000 students, the Chicago school district is the third largest in the United States. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO -- Hundreds of delegates to the Chicago teachers union gathered Tuesday to debate a proposed contract, the first step before casting a critical vote that could end the city's first teachers strike in 25 years.
Two days after refusing to end the strike because they hadn't seen all the contract details, the 700-plus delegates met at a South Side union hall to go over the settlement offer point by point.
Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said she wouldn't tell union delegates how to vote. But she said she would vote for the proposal if she were still teaching, calling it the best deal negotiators could get.
"I don't think it's a great deal," Lewis said. "I'm just more proud of our union. The contract is the contract. It's nothing that I take ownership over."
As they arrived for the meeting, many delegates were optimistic the strike would be called off. A few said they weren't sure.
Tanya Ellis an elementary school teacher, hoped for an end to the walkout.
"It's not the best contract. It's not the worst," Ellis said. "We need our kids back in school."
Journalists were not permitted inside the meeting, but reporters peering through windows could see delegates standing and cheering, raising hands and pumping fists. From the outside, it was impossible to know specifically what they were excited about.
Many teachers said they felt conflicted: They were eager to go back to work but determined to see their efforts through to the end.
"I'm desperately wanting to get back to my lab experiments with my kids," said Heath Davis, a seventh-grade science teacher who was picketing outside Goethe Elementary School on the city's West Side.
Davis was optimistic that Tuesday's vote could end the strike that has kept 350,000 students out of the classroom. But he said teachers still had concerns about the academic calendar, pensions and resources for special education, in addition to the more publicly discussed issues of tying teacher evaluations to student test scores and recalling laid-off teachers when schools close.
"We don't want to move too quickly," said Davis, a delegate who was consulting with other teachers at his school before deciding how to vote. "We want to make sure our questions are answered."
Tuesday's vote was not on the contract offer itself, but on whether to continue the strike. The contract must be submitted to a vote of the full union membership before it is formally ratified.
Some union delegates were taking straw polls of rank-and-file teachers to measure support for a settlement.
Craig Richmond, a counselor at Richard Yates Elementary School in northwest Chicago, voted to continue to the strike as a way to pressure the district on the closure of schools with poor performance or declining enrollment. The former music teacher has lost his job three times in such closures.
He described his action as a protest vote, but he recognized that continuing to strike could erode community support and do more harm than good.
"It's a huge gamble," he acknowledged. "The kids would lose out. It doesn't feel good to me to have that position."
Union leaders say trust has become a critical factor after months of strained relations with Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the school board, and that Emanuel's effort to get a judge to order the teachers back to class could become an obstacle.
But teachers have begun feeling pressure to decide quickly on the tentative contract that labor and education experts – and even some union leaders – called a good deal for the union after a long stretch of setbacks nationally for organized labor.
"It's risky to extend the strike when everyone was expecting the strike to be over," said Richard Kahlenberg of the Century Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington.
Irked by the union's two-day delay in voting on whether to send children back to school, Emanuel took the matter into court Monday. A judge has called a hearing for Wednesday to rule on the city's request for an injunction ordering the teachers back to work.
Both sides have only released summaries of the proposed agreement. But outside observers said the tentative contract appears to be a win for the union's 25,000 teachers.
While teachers in San Francisco haven't gotten an across-the-board raise in years, for example, Chicago teachers are in line for raises in each of the proposed deal's three years with provisions for a fourth. In Cleveland, teachers recently agreed to the same kind of evaluation system based in part on student performance that Chicago has offered.
"The district went past the halfway mark," said Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality. "They got a pretty good deal."
Some union members in Chicago praised the school district's move on what percentage of test scores will be factored into teacher evaluations, reducing it from 45 percent to the 30 percent set as the minimum by state law. The deal also includes an appeals process to contest evaluations. The new evaluations would be phased in over the length of the contract.
The tentative contract calls for a 3 percent raise in its first year and 2 percent for two years after that, along with increases for experienced teachers. While many teachers are upset it did not restore a 4 percent pay raise Emanuel rescinded earlier this year, the contract if adopted would keep Chicago teachers among the highest-paid in the country.
In Chicago, the starting salary is roughly $49,000, and average salary is around $76,000 a year.
The city also won some things from the union in the proposed settlement. Emanuel gets the longer school day he wanted, and principals will have say over who gets hired at their schools, something the union fought. The district will be required to give some preference to teachers who are displaced, and the school district will have to maintain a hiring list and make sure that at least half of hires are displaced teachers.
"We made a lot of progress," said Susanne McCannon, who teaches art at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. "I'd like to be back in the classroom, but I want to be back in the classroom with the best situation possible."
___
__
Associated Press writers Jason Keyser in Chicago, Steve LeBlanc in Boston, Terry Chea in San Francisco and Amanda Myers in Cincinnati contributed to this report.
By SOPHIA TAREEN 09/18/12 05:32 PM ET
Striking Chicago public school teachers picket outside of the Jose De Diego Community Academy on September 17, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. More than 26,000 teachers and support staff walked off of their jobs on September 10 after the Chicago Teachers Union failed to reach an agreement with the city on compensation, benefits and job security. With about 350,000 students, the Chicago school district is the third largest in the United States. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO -- Hundreds of delegates to the Chicago teachers union gathered Tuesday to debate a proposed contract, the first step before casting a critical vote that could end the city's first teachers strike in 25 years.
Two days after refusing to end the strike because they hadn't seen all the contract details, the 700-plus delegates met at a South Side union hall to go over the settlement offer point by point.
Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said she wouldn't tell union delegates how to vote. But she said she would vote for the proposal if she were still teaching, calling it the best deal negotiators could get.
"I don't think it's a great deal," Lewis said. "I'm just more proud of our union. The contract is the contract. It's nothing that I take ownership over."
As they arrived for the meeting, many delegates were optimistic the strike would be called off. A few said they weren't sure.
Tanya Ellis an elementary school teacher, hoped for an end to the walkout.
"It's not the best contract. It's not the worst," Ellis said. "We need our kids back in school."
Journalists were not permitted inside the meeting, but reporters peering through windows could see delegates standing and cheering, raising hands and pumping fists. From the outside, it was impossible to know specifically what they were excited about.
Many teachers said they felt conflicted: They were eager to go back to work but determined to see their efforts through to the end.
"I'm desperately wanting to get back to my lab experiments with my kids," said Heath Davis, a seventh-grade science teacher who was picketing outside Goethe Elementary School on the city's West Side.
Davis was optimistic that Tuesday's vote could end the strike that has kept 350,000 students out of the classroom. But he said teachers still had concerns about the academic calendar, pensions and resources for special education, in addition to the more publicly discussed issues of tying teacher evaluations to student test scores and recalling laid-off teachers when schools close.
"We don't want to move too quickly," said Davis, a delegate who was consulting with other teachers at his school before deciding how to vote. "We want to make sure our questions are answered."
Tuesday's vote was not on the contract offer itself, but on whether to continue the strike. The contract must be submitted to a vote of the full union membership before it is formally ratified.
Some union delegates were taking straw polls of rank-and-file teachers to measure support for a settlement.
Craig Richmond, a counselor at Richard Yates Elementary School in northwest Chicago, voted to continue to the strike as a way to pressure the district on the closure of schools with poor performance or declining enrollment. The former music teacher has lost his job three times in such closures.
He described his action as a protest vote, but he recognized that continuing to strike could erode community support and do more harm than good.
"It's a huge gamble," he acknowledged. "The kids would lose out. It doesn't feel good to me to have that position."
Union leaders say trust has become a critical factor after months of strained relations with Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the school board, and that Emanuel's effort to get a judge to order the teachers back to class could become an obstacle.
But teachers have begun feeling pressure to decide quickly on the tentative contract that labor and education experts – and even some union leaders – called a good deal for the union after a long stretch of setbacks nationally for organized labor.
"It's risky to extend the strike when everyone was expecting the strike to be over," said Richard Kahlenberg of the Century Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington.
Irked by the union's two-day delay in voting on whether to send children back to school, Emanuel took the matter into court Monday. A judge has called a hearing for Wednesday to rule on the city's request for an injunction ordering the teachers back to work.
Both sides have only released summaries of the proposed agreement. But outside observers said the tentative contract appears to be a win for the union's 25,000 teachers.
While teachers in San Francisco haven't gotten an across-the-board raise in years, for example, Chicago teachers are in line for raises in each of the proposed deal's three years with provisions for a fourth. In Cleveland, teachers recently agreed to the same kind of evaluation system based in part on student performance that Chicago has offered.
"The district went past the halfway mark," said Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality. "They got a pretty good deal."
Some union members in Chicago praised the school district's move on what percentage of test scores will be factored into teacher evaluations, reducing it from 45 percent to the 30 percent set as the minimum by state law. The deal also includes an appeals process to contest evaluations. The new evaluations would be phased in over the length of the contract.
The tentative contract calls for a 3 percent raise in its first year and 2 percent for two years after that, along with increases for experienced teachers. While many teachers are upset it did not restore a 4 percent pay raise Emanuel rescinded earlier this year, the contract if adopted would keep Chicago teachers among the highest-paid in the country.
In Chicago, the starting salary is roughly $49,000, and average salary is around $76,000 a year.
The city also won some things from the union in the proposed settlement. Emanuel gets the longer school day he wanted, and principals will have say over who gets hired at their schools, something the union fought. The district will be required to give some preference to teachers who are displaced, and the school district will have to maintain a hiring list and make sure that at least half of hires are displaced teachers.
"We made a lot of progress," said Susanne McCannon, who teaches art at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. "I'd like to be back in the classroom, but I want to be back in the classroom with the best situation possible."
___
__
Associated Press writers Jason Keyser in Chicago, Steve LeBlanc in Boston, Terry Chea in San Francisco and Amanda Myers in Cincinnati contributed to this report.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Show Solidarity With The Chicago Teachers- This Is Our Fight!-Victory To The Chicago Teachers!-Send Donations
Click on the headline to link to the Chicago Teachers Union to show solidarity by messages or donations.
Contribute to the CTU Solidarity Fund
The Chicago Teachers Union is currently on the front lines of a fight to defend public education. On one side the 30,000 members of the CTU have called for a contract that includes fair compensation, meaningful job security for qualified teachers, smaller class sizes and a better school day with Art, Music, World Language and appropriate staffing levels to help our neediest students.
On the other side, the Chicago Board of Education—which is managed by out of town reformers and Broad Foundation hires with little or no Chicago public school experience—has pushed to add two weeks to the school year and 85 minutes to the school day, eliminate pay increases for seniority, evaluate teachers based on student test scores, and slash many other rights.
Teachers, parents and community supporters in Chicago have fought valiantly—marching, filling auditoriums at hearings and parent meetings, even occupying a school and taking over a school board meeting. Most recently, 98 percent of our members voted to authorize a strike. But now we find ourselves facing new opponents—national education privatizers, backed by some of the nation’s wealthiest people. They are running radio ads, increasing press attacks, and mounting a PR campaign to discredit the CTU and the benefits of public education.
We are asking you to support our struggle for educational justice. You and your organization can show your support by making contribution to our Solidarity Fund. All donations will be used to conduct broad outreach throughout Chicago and nation-wide. Specifically, we plan to print educational materials, to distribute information about our positive agenda, such as the CTU report The Schools Chicago Students Deserve, and to mobilize massive support for educators in rallies and gatherings throughout the city. Any amount you can give will be a great help. You can donate using your credit card below or write a check to the “Chicago Teachers Union Solidarity Fund” and mail it directly to the Chicago Teachers Union Solidarity Fund, 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, Suite 400, Chicago, Illinois 60654. If your organization or union would like to write a letter or resolution of solidarity, we would very much appreciate it.
Thank you for your support.
In Solidarity,
Karen GJ Lewis, NBCT
CTU President
Contribute to the CTU Solidarity Fund
The Chicago Teachers Union is currently on the front lines of a fight to defend public education. On one side the 30,000 members of the CTU have called for a contract that includes fair compensation, meaningful job security for qualified teachers, smaller class sizes and a better school day with Art, Music, World Language and appropriate staffing levels to help our neediest students.
On the other side, the Chicago Board of Education—which is managed by out of town reformers and Broad Foundation hires with little or no Chicago public school experience—has pushed to add two weeks to the school year and 85 minutes to the school day, eliminate pay increases for seniority, evaluate teachers based on student test scores, and slash many other rights.
Teachers, parents and community supporters in Chicago have fought valiantly—marching, filling auditoriums at hearings and parent meetings, even occupying a school and taking over a school board meeting. Most recently, 98 percent of our members voted to authorize a strike. But now we find ourselves facing new opponents—national education privatizers, backed by some of the nation’s wealthiest people. They are running radio ads, increasing press attacks, and mounting a PR campaign to discredit the CTU and the benefits of public education.
We are asking you to support our struggle for educational justice. You and your organization can show your support by making contribution to our Solidarity Fund. All donations will be used to conduct broad outreach throughout Chicago and nation-wide. Specifically, we plan to print educational materials, to distribute information about our positive agenda, such as the CTU report The Schools Chicago Students Deserve, and to mobilize massive support for educators in rallies and gatherings throughout the city. Any amount you can give will be a great help. You can donate using your credit card below or write a check to the “Chicago Teachers Union Solidarity Fund” and mail it directly to the Chicago Teachers Union Solidarity Fund, 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, Suite 400, Chicago, Illinois 60654. If your organization or union would like to write a letter or resolution of solidarity, we would very much appreciate it.
Thank you for your support.
In Solidarity,
Karen GJ Lewis, NBCT
CTU President
Chicago teachers strike enters 2nd week-Victory To The Chicago Teachers Union !
Chicago teachers strike enters 2nd week
By SOPHIA TAREEN and TAMMY WEBBER, AP
2 hours ago
Philomena Johnson, a delegate from Little Village Academy, decorates her veh...
CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is turning to the courts to try to put an end to a teachers strike that's entering its second week and has left parents scrambling to make alternative child care arrangements for at least two more days.
The union and school leaders seemed headed toward a resolution at the end of last week, saying they were optimistic students in the nation's third-largest school district would be back in class by Monday. But teachers uncomfortable with a tentative contract offer decided Sunday to remain on strike, saying they needed more time to review a complicated proposal.
Emanuel fired back, saying he told city attorneys to seek a court order forcing Chicago Teachers Union members back into the classroom.
The strike is the first for the city's teachers in 25 years and has kept 350,000 students out of class, leaving parents to make other plans.
Working mom Dequita Wade said that when the strike started, she sent her son 15 miles away to a cousin's house so he wouldn't be left unsupervised in a neighborhood known for violent crime and gangs. She was hoping the union and district would work things out quickly.
"You had a whole week. This is beginning to be ridiculous," Wade said. "Are they going to keep prolonging things?"
Months of contract negotiations have come down to two main issues central to the debate over the future of education across the United States: teacher evaluations and job security.
Union delegates said they felt uncomfortable approving the contract because they had seen it only in bits. The union will meet again Tuesday, after the end of the Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.
"There's no trust for our members of the board," Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis told reporters Sunday night. "They're not happy with the agreement. They'd like it to actually be a lot better."
Emanuel said the strike was illegal because it endangers the health and safety of students and concerned issues — evaluations, layoffs and recall rights — that state law says cannot be grounds for a work stoppage.
"This was a strike of choice and is now a delay of choice that is wrong for our children," Emanuel said in a written statement.
The strike has shined a spotlight on Emanuel's leadership more than ever, and some experts have suggested the new contract — which features annual pay raises and other benefits — is a win for union.
"I'm hard-pressed to imagine how they could have done much better," said Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "This is a very impressive outcome for the teachers."
With an average salary of $76,000, Chicago teachers are among the highest-paid in the nation, and the contract outline calls for annual raises. But some teachers are upset it did not restore a 4 percent raise Emanuel rescinded last year.
Emanuel pushed for a contract that includes ratcheting up the percentage of evaluations based on student performance, to 35 percent within four years. The union contends that does not take into account outside factors that affect student performance such as poverty and violence.
The union pushed for a policy to give laid-off teachers first dibs on open jobs anywhere in the district, but the city said that would keep principals from hiring the teachers they think are most qualified.
The union has engaged in something of a publicity campaign, telling parents about problems that include a lack of important books and basic supplies.
Some parents said they remain sympathetic to teachers.
"I don't think they're wrong. The things they're asking for are within reason," said Pamela Edwards, who has sent her 16-year-old daughter to one of about 140 schools the district has kept open during the strike to provide meals and supervision.
Others said they understand why teachers are taking their time.
"As much as we want our kids back in school, teachers need to make sure they have dotted all their i's and crossed their t's," said Becky Malone, mother of a second grader and fourth grader, who've been studying at home and going to museums over the last week. "What's the point of going on strike if you don't get everything you need out of it? For parents, it'll be no more of a challenge than it's been in the past week."
By SOPHIA TAREEN and TAMMY WEBBER, AP
2 hours ago
Philomena Johnson, a delegate from Little Village Academy, decorates her veh...
CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is turning to the courts to try to put an end to a teachers strike that's entering its second week and has left parents scrambling to make alternative child care arrangements for at least two more days.
The union and school leaders seemed headed toward a resolution at the end of last week, saying they were optimistic students in the nation's third-largest school district would be back in class by Monday. But teachers uncomfortable with a tentative contract offer decided Sunday to remain on strike, saying they needed more time to review a complicated proposal.
Emanuel fired back, saying he told city attorneys to seek a court order forcing Chicago Teachers Union members back into the classroom.
The strike is the first for the city's teachers in 25 years and has kept 350,000 students out of class, leaving parents to make other plans.
Working mom Dequita Wade said that when the strike started, she sent her son 15 miles away to a cousin's house so he wouldn't be left unsupervised in a neighborhood known for violent crime and gangs. She was hoping the union and district would work things out quickly.
"You had a whole week. This is beginning to be ridiculous," Wade said. "Are they going to keep prolonging things?"
Months of contract negotiations have come down to two main issues central to the debate over the future of education across the United States: teacher evaluations and job security.
Union delegates said they felt uncomfortable approving the contract because they had seen it only in bits. The union will meet again Tuesday, after the end of the Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.
"There's no trust for our members of the board," Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis told reporters Sunday night. "They're not happy with the agreement. They'd like it to actually be a lot better."
Emanuel said the strike was illegal because it endangers the health and safety of students and concerned issues — evaluations, layoffs and recall rights — that state law says cannot be grounds for a work stoppage.
"This was a strike of choice and is now a delay of choice that is wrong for our children," Emanuel said in a written statement.
The strike has shined a spotlight on Emanuel's leadership more than ever, and some experts have suggested the new contract — which features annual pay raises and other benefits — is a win for union.
"I'm hard-pressed to imagine how they could have done much better," said Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "This is a very impressive outcome for the teachers."
With an average salary of $76,000, Chicago teachers are among the highest-paid in the nation, and the contract outline calls for annual raises. But some teachers are upset it did not restore a 4 percent raise Emanuel rescinded last year.
Emanuel pushed for a contract that includes ratcheting up the percentage of evaluations based on student performance, to 35 percent within four years. The union contends that does not take into account outside factors that affect student performance such as poverty and violence.
The union pushed for a policy to give laid-off teachers first dibs on open jobs anywhere in the district, but the city said that would keep principals from hiring the teachers they think are most qualified.
The union has engaged in something of a publicity campaign, telling parents about problems that include a lack of important books and basic supplies.
Some parents said they remain sympathetic to teachers.
"I don't think they're wrong. The things they're asking for are within reason," said Pamela Edwards, who has sent her 16-year-old daughter to one of about 140 schools the district has kept open during the strike to provide meals and supervision.
Others said they understand why teachers are taking their time.
"As much as we want our kids back in school, teachers need to make sure they have dotted all their i's and crossed their t's," said Becky Malone, mother of a second grader and fourth grader, who've been studying at home and going to museums over the last week. "What's the point of going on strike if you don't get everything you need out of it? For parents, it'll be no more of a challenge than it's been in the past week."
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Chicago teachers' strike grinds into third day-Victory To The Chicago Teachers!
Chicago teachers' strike grinds into third day
By DON BABWIN, AP
1 hour ago
CHICAGO — The public teachers' strike that has halted classwork and upset family routines across Chicago ground into a third day Wednesday with some movement reported by union and school board negotiators but no sign of an imminent deal.
Union leaders said they will meet Wednesday morning to review a new, comprehensive proposal from school board negotiators that addresses all the issues still on the table. The board has requested either a written response or a comprehensive counterproposal from the union.
But the teachers Tuesday were lowering expectations for an agreement, buoyed by energetic rallies in which even parents inconvenienced by the strike waved placards in support. Other unions were joining in, with school custodian representatives saying their members will walk off the job this week as well.
Board President David Vitale, the lead schools negotiator, said early in the day that a deal could be reached, but union President Karen Lewis and her colleagues emerged from the talks accusing the board of having dug in its heels with its new proposal. Among the biggest remaining issues are a new teacher evaluation system and a process for deciding which laid-off teachers can be rehired.
"There's been — let's put it this way — centimeters (of progress) and we're still kilometers apart," said Lewis, who earlier stated it was "lunacy" to think the issues could be wrapped up quickly.
School officials also took steps to prepare for a long haul, despite persistent assertions by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and others that the strike was "unnecessary" and could be resolved quickly. The school district in the country's third largest city announced that, beginning Thursday, the 147 drop-off centers where students can get free breakfast and a morning of supervision will be open six hours a day rather than four.
Vitale said late Tuesday that the two sides had held extensive discussions on the teacher evaluation system. But he questioned the seriousness of the union negotiators, noting that they had encouraged the protesting teachers to enjoy themselves at a rally during the day.
As the teachers walk the picket lines, they have been joined by parents who are scrambling to find a place for children to pass the time or for baby sitters. Mothers and fathers — some with their kids in tow — are marching with the teachers. Other parents are honking their encouragement from cars or planting yard signs that announce their support in English and Spanish.
Unions are still hallowed organizations in much of Chicago, and the teachers union holds a special place of honor in many households where children often grow up to join the same police, firefighter or trade unions as their parents and grandparents.
"I'm going to stay strong, behind the teachers," said the Rev. Michael Grant, who joined educators on the picket line Tuesday. "My son says he's proud; `You are supporting my teacher.'"
But one question looming over the contract talks is whether parents will continue to stand behind teachers if students are left idle for days or weeks. That ticking clock could instill a sense of urgency in the ongoing negotiations.
Mary Bryan, the grandmother of two students at Shoop Academy on the city's far South Side, supports the teachers because she see "the frustration, the overwork they have." A protracted labor battle, she acknowledged, would "test the support" of many families.
Parents "should stick with them, but they might demand teachers go back to work," Bryan added.
To win friends, the union has engaged in something of a publicity campaign, telling parents repeatedly about problems with schools and the barriers that have made it more difficult to serve their kids. They cite classrooms that are stifling hot without air conditioning, important books that are unavailable and insufficient supplies of the basics, such as toilet paper.
"They've been keeping me informed about that for months and months," Grant said.
It was a shrewd tactic, said Robert Bruno, professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"This union figured out they couldn't assume the public would be on their side, so they went out and actively engaged in getting parent support," Bruno said. "They worked like the devil to get it."
But, said some reform advocates, public opinion could swing against the union relatively soon if the dispute seems to carry on with no resolution in sight.
Juan Jose Gonzalez is the Chicago director for the education advocacy group Stand for Children, which has hundreds of parent volunteers and was instrumental in pushing legislative reforms in Illinois. He says parents "are all over the map" in terms of their support for teachers or the school district.
"Within a day or two, all parents are going to turn their ire toward the strike," Gonzalez said. "As parents see what the district offers and see the teachers not counterpropose, they will become increasingly frustrated with the grandstanding."
Already, there are some parents who don't understand why teachers would not readily accept a contract offering a 16 percent raise over four years — far more than most American employers are giving in the aftermath of the Great Recession.
Rodney Espiritu, a stay-at-home dad whose 4-year-old son just started preschool, said the low test scores he's read about suggest teachers don't have "much of a foot to stand on."
In a telephone poll conducted Monday by the Chicago Sun-Times, nearly half of people surveyed said they supported the teachers union, compared with 39 percent who oppose the strike. Almost three-quarters of those polled regarded Emanuel's efforts to resolve the dispute as average, below average or poor. The poll of 500 registered voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
___
Associated Press writers Sophia Tareen, Michael Tarm and Jason Keyser contributed to this report.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
By DON BABWIN, AP
1 hour ago
CHICAGO — The public teachers' strike that has halted classwork and upset family routines across Chicago ground into a third day Wednesday with some movement reported by union and school board negotiators but no sign of an imminent deal.
Union leaders said they will meet Wednesday morning to review a new, comprehensive proposal from school board negotiators that addresses all the issues still on the table. The board has requested either a written response or a comprehensive counterproposal from the union.
But the teachers Tuesday were lowering expectations for an agreement, buoyed by energetic rallies in which even parents inconvenienced by the strike waved placards in support. Other unions were joining in, with school custodian representatives saying their members will walk off the job this week as well.
Board President David Vitale, the lead schools negotiator, said early in the day that a deal could be reached, but union President Karen Lewis and her colleagues emerged from the talks accusing the board of having dug in its heels with its new proposal. Among the biggest remaining issues are a new teacher evaluation system and a process for deciding which laid-off teachers can be rehired.
"There's been — let's put it this way — centimeters (of progress) and we're still kilometers apart," said Lewis, who earlier stated it was "lunacy" to think the issues could be wrapped up quickly.
School officials also took steps to prepare for a long haul, despite persistent assertions by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and others that the strike was "unnecessary" and could be resolved quickly. The school district in the country's third largest city announced that, beginning Thursday, the 147 drop-off centers where students can get free breakfast and a morning of supervision will be open six hours a day rather than four.
Vitale said late Tuesday that the two sides had held extensive discussions on the teacher evaluation system. But he questioned the seriousness of the union negotiators, noting that they had encouraged the protesting teachers to enjoy themselves at a rally during the day.
As the teachers walk the picket lines, they have been joined by parents who are scrambling to find a place for children to pass the time or for baby sitters. Mothers and fathers — some with their kids in tow — are marching with the teachers. Other parents are honking their encouragement from cars or planting yard signs that announce their support in English and Spanish.
Unions are still hallowed organizations in much of Chicago, and the teachers union holds a special place of honor in many households where children often grow up to join the same police, firefighter or trade unions as their parents and grandparents.
"I'm going to stay strong, behind the teachers," said the Rev. Michael Grant, who joined educators on the picket line Tuesday. "My son says he's proud; `You are supporting my teacher.'"
But one question looming over the contract talks is whether parents will continue to stand behind teachers if students are left idle for days or weeks. That ticking clock could instill a sense of urgency in the ongoing negotiations.
Mary Bryan, the grandmother of two students at Shoop Academy on the city's far South Side, supports the teachers because she see "the frustration, the overwork they have." A protracted labor battle, she acknowledged, would "test the support" of many families.
Parents "should stick with them, but they might demand teachers go back to work," Bryan added.
To win friends, the union has engaged in something of a publicity campaign, telling parents repeatedly about problems with schools and the barriers that have made it more difficult to serve their kids. They cite classrooms that are stifling hot without air conditioning, important books that are unavailable and insufficient supplies of the basics, such as toilet paper.
"They've been keeping me informed about that for months and months," Grant said.
It was a shrewd tactic, said Robert Bruno, professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"This union figured out they couldn't assume the public would be on their side, so they went out and actively engaged in getting parent support," Bruno said. "They worked like the devil to get it."
But, said some reform advocates, public opinion could swing against the union relatively soon if the dispute seems to carry on with no resolution in sight.
Juan Jose Gonzalez is the Chicago director for the education advocacy group Stand for Children, which has hundreds of parent volunteers and was instrumental in pushing legislative reforms in Illinois. He says parents "are all over the map" in terms of their support for teachers or the school district.
"Within a day or two, all parents are going to turn their ire toward the strike," Gonzalez said. "As parents see what the district offers and see the teachers not counterpropose, they will become increasingly frustrated with the grandstanding."
Already, there are some parents who don't understand why teachers would not readily accept a contract offering a 16 percent raise over four years — far more than most American employers are giving in the aftermath of the Great Recession.
Rodney Espiritu, a stay-at-home dad whose 4-year-old son just started preschool, said the low test scores he's read about suggest teachers don't have "much of a foot to stand on."
In a telephone poll conducted Monday by the Chicago Sun-Times, nearly half of people surveyed said they supported the teachers union, compared with 39 percent who oppose the strike. Almost three-quarters of those polled regarded Emanuel's efforts to resolve the dispute as average, below average or poor. The poll of 500 registered voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
___
Associated Press writers Sophia Tareen, Michael Tarm and Jason Keyser contributed to this report.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Show Solidarity With The Chicago Teachers- This Is Our Fight!-Victory To The Chicago Teachers!-Send Donations
Click on the headline to link to the Chicago Teachers Union to show solidarity by messages or donations.
Contribute to the CTU Solidarity Fund
The Chicago Teachers Union is currently on the front lines of a fight to defend public education. On one side the 30,000 members of the CTU have called for a contract that includes fair compensation, meaningful job security for qualified teachers, smaller class sizes and a better school day with Art, Music, World Language and appropriate staffing levels to help our neediest students.
On the other side, the Chicago Board of Education—which is managed by out of town reformers and Broad Foundation hires with little or no Chicago public school experience—has pushed to add two weeks to the school year and 85 minutes to the school day, eliminate pay increases for seniority, evaluate teachers based on student test scores, and slash many other rights.
Teachers, parents and community supporters in Chicago have fought valiantly—marching, filling auditoriums at hearings and parent meetings, even occupying a school and taking over a school board meeting. Most recently, 98 percent of our members voted to authorize a strike. But now we find ourselves facing new opponents—national education privatizers, backed by some of the nation’s wealthiest people. They are running radio ads, increasing press attacks, and mounting a PR campaign to discredit the CTU and the benefits of public education.
We are asking you to support our struggle for educational justice. You and your organization can show your support by making contribution to our Solidarity Fund. All donations will be used to conduct broad outreach throughout Chicago and nation-wide. Specifically, we plan to print educational materials, to distribute information about our positive agenda, such as the CTU report The Schools Chicago Students Deserve, and to mobilize massive support for educators in rallies and gatherings throughout the city. Any amount you can give will be a great help. You can donate using your credit card below or write a check to the “Chicago Teachers Union Solidarity Fund” and mail it directly to the Chicago Teachers Union Solidarity Fund, 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, Suite 400, Chicago, Illinois 60654. If your organization or union would like to write a letter or resolution of solidarity, we would very much appreciate it.
Thank you for your support.
In Solidarity,
Karen GJ Lewis, NBCT
CTU President
Contribute to the CTU Solidarity Fund
The Chicago Teachers Union is currently on the front lines of a fight to defend public education. On one side the 30,000 members of the CTU have called for a contract that includes fair compensation, meaningful job security for qualified teachers, smaller class sizes and a better school day with Art, Music, World Language and appropriate staffing levels to help our neediest students.
On the other side, the Chicago Board of Education—which is managed by out of town reformers and Broad Foundation hires with little or no Chicago public school experience—has pushed to add two weeks to the school year and 85 minutes to the school day, eliminate pay increases for seniority, evaluate teachers based on student test scores, and slash many other rights.
Teachers, parents and community supporters in Chicago have fought valiantly—marching, filling auditoriums at hearings and parent meetings, even occupying a school and taking over a school board meeting. Most recently, 98 percent of our members voted to authorize a strike. But now we find ourselves facing new opponents—national education privatizers, backed by some of the nation’s wealthiest people. They are running radio ads, increasing press attacks, and mounting a PR campaign to discredit the CTU and the benefits of public education.
We are asking you to support our struggle for educational justice. You and your organization can show your support by making contribution to our Solidarity Fund. All donations will be used to conduct broad outreach throughout Chicago and nation-wide. Specifically, we plan to print educational materials, to distribute information about our positive agenda, such as the CTU report The Schools Chicago Students Deserve, and to mobilize massive support for educators in rallies and gatherings throughout the city. Any amount you can give will be a great help. You can donate using your credit card below or write a check to the “Chicago Teachers Union Solidarity Fund” and mail it directly to the Chicago Teachers Union Solidarity Fund, 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, Suite 400, Chicago, Illinois 60654. If your organization or union would like to write a letter or resolution of solidarity, we would very much appreciate it.
Thank you for your support.
In Solidarity,
Karen GJ Lewis, NBCT
CTU President
Chicago teachers strike for first time in 25 years-Victory To The Chicago Teachers!
Chicago teachers strike for first time in 25 years
By TAMMY WEBBER and DON BABWIN, AP
2 hours ago
CHICAGO — Thousands of teachers walked off the job Monday in Chicago's first schools strike in 25 years, after union leaders announced that months-long negotiations had failed to resolve a contract dispute with school district officials by a midnight deadline.
The walkout in the nation's third-largest school district posed a tricky challenge for the city and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who said he would push to end the strike quickly as officials figure out how to keep nearly 400,000 children safe and occupied.
"This is not a strike I wanted," Emanuel said Sunday night, not long after the union announced the action. "It was a strike of choice ... it's unnecessary, it's avoidable and it's wrong."
Some 26,000 teachers and support staff were expected to join the picket. Among teachers protesting Monday morning outside Benjamin Banneker Elementary School on Chicago's South Side, eighth-grade teacher Michael Williams said he wanted a quick contract resolution.
"We hoped that it wouldn't happen. We all want to get back to teaching," Williams said, adding that wages and classroom conditions need to be improved.
Contract negotiations between Chicago Public School officials and union leaders that stretched through the weekend were expected to resume Monday.
Officials said some 140 schools would be open between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. so the children who rely on free meals provided by the school district can eat breakfast and lunch, school district officials said.
City officials acknowledged that children left unsupervised — especially in neighborhoods with a history of gang violence — might be at risk, but vowed to protect the students' safety.
"We will make sure our kids are safe, we will see our way through these issues and our kids will be back in the classroom where they belong," said Emanuel, President Barack Obama's former chief of staff.
The school district asked community organizations to provide additional programs for students, and a number of churches, libraries and other groups plan to offer day camps and other activities.
Police Chief Garry McCarthy said he would take officers off desk duty and deploy them to deal with any teachers' protests as well as the thousands of students who could be roaming the streets.
Union leaders and district officials were not far apart in their negotiations on compensation, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said. But other issues — including potential changes to health benefits and a new teacher evaluation system based partly on students' standardized test scores — remained unresolved, she said.
"This is a difficult decision and one we hoped we could have avoided," Lewis said. "We must do things differently in this city if we are to provide our students with the education they so rightfully deserve."
Before the strike, some parents said they would not drop their children at strange schools where they didn't know the other students or supervising adults. On Monday, as only a trickle of students arrived at some schools, April Logan said she wouldn't leave her daughter with an adult she didn't know. Her daughter, Ashanti, started school just a week earlier.
"I don't understand this, my baby just got into school," Logan said at Benjamin Mays Academy on the city's South Side before turning around and taking her daughter home.
Some students expressed anger, blaming the school district for interrupting their education.
"They're not hurting the teachers, they're hurting us," said Ta'Shara Edwards, a 16-year-old student at Robeson High School on the city's South Side. She said her mother made her come to class to do homework because so she "wouldn't suck up her light bill."
But there was anger toward teachers, as well.
"I think it's crazy. Why are they even going on strike?" asked Ebony Irvin, a 17-year-old student at Robeson.
Emanuel and the union officials have much at stake. Unions and collective bargaining by public employees have recently come under criticism in many parts of the country, and all sides are closely monitoring who might emerge with the upper hand in the Chicago dispute.
The timing also may be inopportune for Emanuel, whose city administration is wrestling with a spike in murders and shootings in some city neighborhoods and who just agreed to take a larger role in fundraising for Obama's re-election campaign.
As the strike deadline approached, parents spent Sunday worrying about how much their children's education might suffer and where their kids will go while they're at work.
"They're going to lose learning time," said Beatriz Fierro, whose daughter is in the fifth grade on the city's Southwest Side. "And if the whole afternoon they're going to be free, it's bad. Of course you're worried."
The school board was offering a fair and responsible contract that would most of the union's demands after "extraordinarily difficult" talks, board president David Vitale said. Emanuel said the district offered the teachers a 16 percent pay raise over four years, doubling an earlier offer.
Lewis said among the issues of concern was a new evaluation that she said would be unfair to teachers because it relied too heavily on students' standardized test scores and does not take into account external factors that affect performance, including poverty, violence and homelessness.
She said the evaluations could result in 6,000 teachers losing their jobs within two years. City officials disagreed and said the union has not explained how it reached that conclusion.
Emanuel said the evaluation would not count in the first year, as teachers and administrators worked out any kinks. Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard said the evaluation "was not developed to be a hammer," but to help teachers improve.
The strike is the latest flashpoint in a very public and often contentious battle between the mayor and the union.
When he took office last year, Emanuel inherited a school district facing a $700 million budget shortfall. Not long after, his administration rescinded 4 percent raises for teachers. He then asked the union to reopen its contract and accept 2 percent pay raises in exchange for lengthening the school day for students by 90 minutes. The union refused.
Emanuel, who promised a longer school day during his campaign, then attempted to go around the union by asking teachers at individual schools to waive the contract and add 90 minutes to the day. He halted the effort after being challenged by the union before the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.
The district and union agreed in July on how to implement the longer school day, striking a deal to hire back 477 teachers who had been laid off rather than pay regular teachers more to work longer hours. That raised hopes the contract dispute would be settled soon, but bargaining continued on the other issues.
___
Associated Press Writer Sophia Tareen contributed to this report.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
By TAMMY WEBBER and DON BABWIN, AP
2 hours ago
CHICAGO — Thousands of teachers walked off the job Monday in Chicago's first schools strike in 25 years, after union leaders announced that months-long negotiations had failed to resolve a contract dispute with school district officials by a midnight deadline.
The walkout in the nation's third-largest school district posed a tricky challenge for the city and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who said he would push to end the strike quickly as officials figure out how to keep nearly 400,000 children safe and occupied.
"This is not a strike I wanted," Emanuel said Sunday night, not long after the union announced the action. "It was a strike of choice ... it's unnecessary, it's avoidable and it's wrong."
Some 26,000 teachers and support staff were expected to join the picket. Among teachers protesting Monday morning outside Benjamin Banneker Elementary School on Chicago's South Side, eighth-grade teacher Michael Williams said he wanted a quick contract resolution.
"We hoped that it wouldn't happen. We all want to get back to teaching," Williams said, adding that wages and classroom conditions need to be improved.
Contract negotiations between Chicago Public School officials and union leaders that stretched through the weekend were expected to resume Monday.
Officials said some 140 schools would be open between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. so the children who rely on free meals provided by the school district can eat breakfast and lunch, school district officials said.
City officials acknowledged that children left unsupervised — especially in neighborhoods with a history of gang violence — might be at risk, but vowed to protect the students' safety.
"We will make sure our kids are safe, we will see our way through these issues and our kids will be back in the classroom where they belong," said Emanuel, President Barack Obama's former chief of staff.
The school district asked community organizations to provide additional programs for students, and a number of churches, libraries and other groups plan to offer day camps and other activities.
Police Chief Garry McCarthy said he would take officers off desk duty and deploy them to deal with any teachers' protests as well as the thousands of students who could be roaming the streets.
Union leaders and district officials were not far apart in their negotiations on compensation, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said. But other issues — including potential changes to health benefits and a new teacher evaluation system based partly on students' standardized test scores — remained unresolved, she said.
"This is a difficult decision and one we hoped we could have avoided," Lewis said. "We must do things differently in this city if we are to provide our students with the education they so rightfully deserve."
Before the strike, some parents said they would not drop their children at strange schools where they didn't know the other students or supervising adults. On Monday, as only a trickle of students arrived at some schools, April Logan said she wouldn't leave her daughter with an adult she didn't know. Her daughter, Ashanti, started school just a week earlier.
"I don't understand this, my baby just got into school," Logan said at Benjamin Mays Academy on the city's South Side before turning around and taking her daughter home.
Some students expressed anger, blaming the school district for interrupting their education.
"They're not hurting the teachers, they're hurting us," said Ta'Shara Edwards, a 16-year-old student at Robeson High School on the city's South Side. She said her mother made her come to class to do homework because so she "wouldn't suck up her light bill."
But there was anger toward teachers, as well.
"I think it's crazy. Why are they even going on strike?" asked Ebony Irvin, a 17-year-old student at Robeson.
Emanuel and the union officials have much at stake. Unions and collective bargaining by public employees have recently come under criticism in many parts of the country, and all sides are closely monitoring who might emerge with the upper hand in the Chicago dispute.
The timing also may be inopportune for Emanuel, whose city administration is wrestling with a spike in murders and shootings in some city neighborhoods and who just agreed to take a larger role in fundraising for Obama's re-election campaign.
As the strike deadline approached, parents spent Sunday worrying about how much their children's education might suffer and where their kids will go while they're at work.
"They're going to lose learning time," said Beatriz Fierro, whose daughter is in the fifth grade on the city's Southwest Side. "And if the whole afternoon they're going to be free, it's bad. Of course you're worried."
The school board was offering a fair and responsible contract that would most of the union's demands after "extraordinarily difficult" talks, board president David Vitale said. Emanuel said the district offered the teachers a 16 percent pay raise over four years, doubling an earlier offer.
Lewis said among the issues of concern was a new evaluation that she said would be unfair to teachers because it relied too heavily on students' standardized test scores and does not take into account external factors that affect performance, including poverty, violence and homelessness.
She said the evaluations could result in 6,000 teachers losing their jobs within two years. City officials disagreed and said the union has not explained how it reached that conclusion.
Emanuel said the evaluation would not count in the first year, as teachers and administrators worked out any kinks. Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard said the evaluation "was not developed to be a hammer," but to help teachers improve.
The strike is the latest flashpoint in a very public and often contentious battle between the mayor and the union.
When he took office last year, Emanuel inherited a school district facing a $700 million budget shortfall. Not long after, his administration rescinded 4 percent raises for teachers. He then asked the union to reopen its contract and accept 2 percent pay raises in exchange for lengthening the school day for students by 90 minutes. The union refused.
Emanuel, who promised a longer school day during his campaign, then attempted to go around the union by asking teachers at individual schools to waive the contract and add 90 minutes to the day. He halted the effort after being challenged by the union before the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.
The district and union agreed in July on how to implement the longer school day, striking a deal to hire back 477 teachers who had been laid off rather than pay regular teachers more to work longer hours. That raised hopes the contract dispute would be settled soon, but bargaining continued on the other issues.
___
Associated Press Writer Sophia Tareen contributed to this report.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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