Questions raised as Illinois Senate Bill 7 moves to House...CTU Leadership Admits Big Mistake

[Hannah Bell]

In an about face, the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union admitted at the CORE caucus meeting on Monday, April 25, 2011, that the bill (SB7) they endorsed and negotiated behind closed doors in the Illinois Senate in Springfield was a mistake. “It was a mistake for the CTU to endorse SB7,” CTU vice president Jesse Sharkey told members of the Coalition of Rank and File Educators (CORE).

“SB7” is Senate Bill 7, which unanimously passed the Illinois Senate (by a vote of 57 to 0) and is currently sitting in the Illinois House of Representatives to be debated... SB7 has been hailed by the business community as a sharp attack on unionized teachers, especially in Chicago. Indeed, the most onerous provisions of the bill apply only to Chicago teacher unions (the Chicago Teachers Union, which represents K-12 teachers, and the Cook County College Teachers Union, which represents teachers at the Chicago City Colleges). The Chicago Tribune has editorialized in favor of an even more onerous version of the legislation aimed solely at Chicago teachers.

Unlike the rest of the state, where unionized teachers may go on strike if a majority vote in favor, this bill mandates that in Chicago 75 percent of CTU (and CCCTU) members would have to vote in favor of a strike. According to many CTU members. This is a bar set so high that it essentially strips the teachers of their legal right to go on strike. Others disagree with that assessment, but it is clear that the legislators created a special section of the law discriminating against the two Chicago teachers unions. Since the passage of the Amendatory Act of 1995 (which gave Mayor Daley complete control over Chicago’s public schools and began the mayoral control movement in urban school districts), Chicago’s teachers and teacher unions have been second class citizens under Illinois school law....

Incoming Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the business community want to eliminate Chicago teachers’ right to strike outright. This has been made clear in Emanuel’s public statements...Emanuel and the business community also want a longer school day with no additional pay, an end to teacher tenure and seniority as a factor in layoffs and rehiring, and an easier way to fire “unsatisfactory” teachers. Merit pay is an additional part of their program. They got much of what they wanted in SB7, with the approval of CTU President Karen Lewis. In fact, while Lewis looked a bit shaken speaking to the teacher delegates two weeks ago about the bill, she sold it to members by stating she saved the teachers’ right to strike...

“It was a compromise,” Sharkey said. “The CTU said we would not go for an attack on our collective bargaining rights, but on closer examination we see that’s exactly what it is.” Sharkey then heard from a roomful of angry union organizers and activists...

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=2232§ion=Article

[sabbat hunter]

1. teachers and other public workers

are barred from striking in NYC. However in exchange they are guaranteed the right to organize\bargain collectively, and mandatory arbitration if the Public Employment Relations Board declares an impasse.

I think other states public workers should push for such protections. I think that the guarantees that they get are a pretty good trade off for no strikes.

[Recursion]

3. I think that's a better model for public sector unions, personally (nt)

[madrchsod]

2. the rest of the teacher`s bill isn`t much better ...

the governor was elected by the union`s organization and he knows he owes them. he`s walking a fine line between the democrats and republicans on more than just this issue.