Union: Vote to be used as leverage in the contract negotiation
By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah
(From Chicago Tribune, June 6th, 2012)
Public school teachers in Chicago begin voting today on whether to authorize their union to call a strike if a deal can’t be reached with the district.
Contract talks are ongoing, and the Chicago Teachers Union vice president Jesse Sharkey admitted on Tuesday the vote is being taken to serve as “leverage in the negotiation process.”
Under a 2011 state law, 75 percent of total CTU membership must give their approval before a strike can take place. CTU hopes to top that percentage to send a message about teacher dissatisfaction with reforms being pushed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools.
Issues in the contract talks are now before an arbitrator, who will issue recommendations July 16. After that, the process calls for steps that would take 45 days before teachers could walk out.
Emanuel and education reform groups have chastised the union for taking the strike vote before the arbitration process is complete. They’ve argued that the intent of the state’s education reform was for final offers to be made public and to allow for a compromise to be reached.
This week, Education Reform Now, a sister organization to Washington D.C.-based Democrats for Education Reform, began running radio ads calling parents to sign a petition against what they called “an early strike vote.” Another national education reform group new to Illinois, Stand for Children, is also running an online petition against the strike vote.
The union and the district remain far apart on critical issues like pay raises and compensation for the longer school day next year.