By Rebeca Nieves Huffman, DFER Illinois State Director
You’ve seen us weigh in on the looming threat of a teachers strike in Chicago and heard our pleas to both the district and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) to dial back the caustic rhetoric. Over the course of what seems like an endless fight, we’ve implored the CTU to put Chicago’s students at the top of their priority lists and stay at the negotiation table with Mayor Emanuel. (See here.) Sadly, the CTU appears to be unwilling to compromise. And, we remain disheartened by the disconnect between the public discourse we hear from CTU’s President Karen Lewis and the private messages we see coming from her and other CTU leadership.
On a recent episode of Chicago Tonight we witnessed the following:
Everything regarding teachers’ strike rights has changed due to SB7 — the state’s new Performance Counts legislation: “Because there’s a new law that we have to comply with. And we have to figure out the logistics of doing that. So, everything has changed because the law changed, and because we also have a very aggressive administration that actually started provoking our members as soon as they got into office, by um taking away our 4% raise, illegally going around us to direct-deal with our members on uh forcing into a longer school day which was going to be implemented, we were very clear, this year.”
* In the CTU’s own summary of SB 7 they indicate they are aware of the process for collective bargaining and the authorization of a strike: Strike Rights Fact finding — The creation of a three panel board that will look at the final offers from the Board of Education and CTU, publish those offers and study the validity of the different claims. The fact finding process will take over 75 days to complete. If fact finding does not produce a resolution, then CTU members can vote to strike. In order to authorize a strike 75% of all our bargaining unit members must vote for it.” (See here.)
A strike vote can happen “whenever”: “We can have a strike vote whenever we want. We’re looking at a strike authorization. We can have a strike authorization whenever. That’s not part of a process. So, the issue is, when do we do that…we do that when our members tell us to do that.”
* On two separate occasions the CTU has stated that a strike vote must come after the contract negotiation’s fact finding process has concluded: “The bill ties the future of tenure status to proficient and excellent evaluations, requires 75% of members to vote to authorize a strike, requires extended mediation and fact-finding prior to a strike vote, and makes the length of school day and school year a permissive subject of bargaining (one that the Board can negotiate, but is not required to negotiate).” (See here.)
“If fact finding does not produce a resolution, then CTU members can vote to strike.” (See here.)
The CTU process is open and transparent, not cloak-and-dagger: “We’re being transparent about this, we’re being out in the open about this, we’re not doing cloak-and-dagger stuff like CPS does where they have some big plan and then they spring it on you at the last minute.”
* Two weeks after promising not to strike during the current school year CTU officials begin laying groundwork for a possible strike: During the Officer Reports at the September, 2011 CTU House of Delegates Meeting, Financial Secretary Kristine Mayle reported that a committee was being formed to “set up a strike fund.” [CTU House of Delegates Meeting Minutes, 9/14/11]