Chicago Teachers Ratify Contract by 80%

The second and third largest cities, social justice leftist oriented unions, in contrast to the UFT, have some interesting news to report.

Despite some controversy in Chicago over what was won by the recent strike and some questions raised about how democratic the process was, the 25,000 membership ratified by 80%. Not too shabby and not far below the numbers here last year.

Read: Chicago Teachers Didn’t Win Everything, But They’ve Transformed the City—And the Labor Movement

Rebecca Burns
November 1, 2019
Working In These Times 

https://portside.org/2019-11-05/chicago-teachers-didnt-win-everything-theyve-transformed-city-and-labor-movement

Class size was a premium issue and some gains were made. Some gains were made in terms of enforcement here in NYC but the numbers remain the same here as they were in 1970. The last time the UFT went on strike over class size was in 1967 - I was on that strike - my first days on the job and I didn't have a clue what it was all about. The class size wins in Chicago seem limited but made some progress. The UFT is also lauding the progress. You know I am a critic of the UFT over class size and I think more can be done but when pro-Unity people point out a comparison of contracts by our so-called "business union" vs the CTU "social justice" union, I don't have an easy answer. But I do point out how the Chicago people used community ties and made a case of pointing out where the money was while here we never hear a word about the outrageous real estate and corporate deals -- like let's give Amazon and Hudson Yards funders enormous tax breaks while arguing there is not enough money to at the very least reduce class size in the early grades as was done in the early 90s but reversed by Bloomberg.

The Mayor is a liberal -and probably a neo-liberal who wanted to hold the line on the ed budget but seems to have no qualms about giving breaks to certain corporate or real estate interests. By the way, de Blasio is no different despite claiming to be left of liberal.

I want honest reports not ideologically tainted reporting. I trust Fred Klonsky's analysis. He is a retired union leader in the Chicago area and does not fawn over the CTU even if he is a big supporter.  So here is his report listing some of the gains and why they are important.  Chicago’s teachers approve their contract. -  

Here is most of Fred's report:

The vote came two weeks after an eleven day strike that put thousands of teachers on the picket lines and in the streets for nearly daily mass protests.
Late Friday night, with 80% of the vote counted from 80% of the schools, votes for approval were running at 81%.
I found no information on what schools the vote was coming from or whether that information will be made available later.
79% approved the deal after the seven-day 2012 strike. The 2016 CBA received a 72% vote of approval.
Teachers have reason to be proud of their unity and militancy during the bargaining.
Members will receive a 16 percent hike over the five year length of the agreement. That is a long time compared to most contracts, and to the 3-year deal that the CTU wanted.
There will be no increases in health care costs for the first three years, a quarter-percent increase in the fourth year and a half-percent increase in the fifth year.
A disappointment for many was the failure to add to elementary teachers prep time and the dispersal of veteran pay must still be negotiated.
The contractual numbers of students in a class – a central demand of the CTU – seems limited.  A teacher may appeal for a remedy to a newly constituted Joint Class Size Assessment Council, consisting of six members appointed by the district and six by the union. The council will determine if, and what, action is to be taken.
Class size and staffing were huge issues in the strike. The union demanded that class sizes and staffing numbers be put in writing in the contract.
What was important for the union was that the numbers and the procedures for remedy be written into the contract which would allow them to be grieved if the numbers and process for remediation were violated.
Now the numbers and remedy are in writing in the collective bargaining agreement.
Still, the numbers themselves remain high.
As for staffing, the union won 209 additional social workers and 250 additional nurses over the duration of the contract.
CPS must now add an additional 44 social workers and 55 nurses next year above what the district had already budgeted. 
There was no agreement to add school librarians.

The new contract designates funds to hire community representatives at schools with large numbers of homeless students.

A stipend will also be available for some schools to hire a Students in Temporary Living Situation (STLS) Liaison. Together, the representative and liaison will ensure homeless students are attending class, have transit passes, and are aware of neighborhood resources.
There were other improvements for teachers in the agreement as well.
Some will continue to argue over who won, the CTU or Mayor Lightfoot. Or whether an 11-day strike significantly improved the agreement over what Mayor Lightfoot and the CPS board offered before the walkout.
As someone who has some experience in bargaining teacher union contracts, I think the fundamental issue is whether this contract is an improvement over the previous one. In this case, it appears the members believe it is and their vote is the one that matters most.
What I am most pleased about is that unlike in a growing number of right to work states, Chicago public school union teachers had the right to bargain it and to vote on their agreement.
That is no small thing.

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Jim Vail - The Chicago Teacher Strike - A View from the Inside - Part 2

So the strike helped expose the lies of politicians, and the fight between the people 99% and the billionaires 1% who supported Lightfoot's campaign. It was an eye opener to teachers who voted for Lightfoot based on her lies.

The union leadership organized and ran a very successful strike to fight for better schools. They are to be commended for that. 

But the union leadership also plays a dirty political game that they say they have to in order to get anything in this system. 

this strike won't change the ugly reality we live in today - where over the past 30 years or so the 1% have accumulated 21 trillion dollars, while the rest of us have lost 900 billion dollars. 

.... Jim Vail

In the continuing search for truth and justice, on the Chicago teacher strike I've been looking for articles that come from different directions - examining all sides of the cube to see through the chaff. Like you know you can expect a glowing victory article from Labor Notes and an attack from the World Socialists on the far left. The liberal press will support the liberal mayor and the right wing will attack her for caving. It is a spin zone.

In every one of these posts on other teacher unions, keep in mind how our union operates here in NYC and compare it to the others. Despite the different political views of the UFT leadership (center Democrat - Biden type politician) and the CTU leadership (social democrat - Bernie  like), they operate on some levels in the same way -- with the CTU being more top-down that one would expect.

Yesterday I presented an insider view from someone I trust who is not in the leadership but close to it. Assessing The Chicago Teacher Strike - A View from...

Today I am presenting the views of Jim Vail, not loved by the CTU leadership if I remember correctly, an original CORE member from a decade ago but who became a left critic of the leadership. I got to hang out a bit with him at the AFT convention in Detroit in 2012 when he was still a delegate and we did agree on some of the critical issues. Here is his report republished from Substance and first published on Jim Vail's website Second City Teachers, which may be accessed here. Jim exposes the Lori Lightfoot sham which was predictable based on her supporters. (But it is funny to see the left Jacobins attacking Elizabeth Warren on similar grounds despite the fact that Wall St hates her guts.

Strike ends! Was it a win for teachers?

Jim Vail - November 01, 2019


The Chicago Teachers Strike finally came to a crashing end after a historic 11-day walkout, the longest teachers strike since 1987.


The union and its supporters are going to say it was a win. The opposition and those with high hopes will say it was not.


And that was reflected in the vote - 364 - 242 to end the strike.

So the union was a bit divided when they voted on ratifying the tentative agreement.

Chicago Teachers Union CTU President Jesse Sharkey stated that the delegates vote on the contract, that he is not here to sell the contract.

But he then went on to sell the contract - saying repeatedly it would be a risk to strike for another week or so with no guarantee we would get more in the contract. But he didn't sell it hard, he knew people would be disappointed.


CTU Vice President Stacy Gates played politics – putting a tweet on the board for the delegates to show that the Speaker and the Governor have agreed to support an Elected School Board.

Another political promise?


Mayor Lori Lightfoot campaigned on empty promises of supporting the neighborhood schools and adding more social workers and nurses, straight from the CTU playbook. When it came down to putting her pledges in writing - she refused until the union and the strike forced her to put some things in writing (about $400 million in extra staffing and support for the schools).


She promised to invest in the South and West Sides that have been neglected, and now in office she is fighting against activists who sued the Lincoln Yards $1.2 billion TIF where tax money to help those "blighted" areas is instead going to a wealthy development company called Sterling Bay. She gave these guys everything they wanted in writing.


She also campaigned for an elected school board and then immediately stopped it. The union has a right to be furious with her.


So the strike helped expose the lies of politicians, and the fight between the people 99% and the billionaires 1% who supported Lightfoot's campaign. It was an eye opener to teachers who voted for Lightfoot based on her lies.

The union leadership organized and ran a very successful strike to fight for better schools. They are to be commended for that.


But the union leadership also plays a dirty political game that they say they have to in order to get anything in this system.


So it was disappointing to hear our leaders say Mayor Lightfoot was fanatical, or religious, a true believer - who wanted a five-year contract (crazy for that long since she can do a lot of damage by closing a lot more schools in her alliance with development), no extra prep time for elementary school teachers (this preserved the 'longer school day' that she they say has led to higher graduation rates) and no change to the Reach teacher evaluation system used to fire lots of teachers at a time of extreme teacher shortages.


What was the union zealous about? What exactly were we all willing to not go back to school until we got it?


The union framed it as a cap on class sizes - we got some good stuff in writing, far from perfect, a nurse in every school, every day (look close at the contract wording!), veteran pay (not that much considering $25 million over five years) and extra pay for Para Professionals (a definite win the union and teachers can be proud of). They forced CPS to increased the sports budget by 35%, adding $5 million to a meager $15 million was a win for city athletics.


It was very inspiring to hear many high school delegates say that their schools still wanted to strike to support of the elementary schools getting a 30 minute prep period each day, to ensure a better school day. Solidarity!

This contract is a reflection of the ruling class attack on public education that was at the apex when President Barack Obama took office in 2008 and implemented the Race to the Top.


The teachers unions supported President Obama (the newly elected CORE leadership was able to abstain from an endorsement, though former CTU President Karen Lewis pushed for it).


Like one of the many colorful signs said during the teachers protests - Unlike Burger King, you can't have it both ways!


But ultimately politics played a very big role here. It almost became a pissing match between the Mayor and the CTU. Nobody wanted to lose - within the box they were playing.


As the great political philosopher and linguist Noam Chomsky says, in the American system you put everything within a box - and within that box you can have some very rigorous debate and free speech. But in this system you are not allowed to go outside that box.


So this strike won't change the ugly reality we live in today - where over the past 30 years or so the 1% have accumulated 21 trillion dollars, while the rest of us have lost 900 billion dollars.


It is a fight not only for teachers, but all of us!

Assessing The Chicago Teacher Strike - A View from the Inside - Part 1

Using the strike weapon is why we won those items, and I want all members to understand the true power of withholding our labor. This strike mattered....now is a time for celebrating what we DID win. I want our members to feel the power of collective action. That those 11 days on the pickets and in the streets got us wins we were told were unwinnable. How we forced items like class sizes and staffing into this contract. Not at the levels we need, but it is now there forever more.... We used more democracy than probably any other union, though often imperfect and rushed. I’ll take a small piece of the credit for that, too, as I believe that I, alongside my other fighter friends, helped push for more transparency and rank & file input. Not claiming we did it alone, by any means, but advocating from below is a powerful force to push us towards justice....

Chicago teacher, member of bargaining team and Ex Bd. 

with my teaching income pretty much stagnant for 13 years while expenses keep growing, I figure I probably should be focusing on savings rather than on education reform.... Another CTU  teacher and original member of CORE

This is part of a series of commentary and reposts from fans and critics of

the CTU strike. It is not always easy to compare what happens in the CTU with the UFT - apples and oranges in many ways. But in a series of posts I'm working on about the recent strike and some of the issues that have boiled to the surface with attacks coming at the CTU from the left and of course the right. Remember, the mayor is considered a liberal "progressive" by the press and the right wing. But that puts her in the Joel Klein/Bloomberg territory and she showed it during the strike.

One of the differences between the UFT(Unity Caucus) and the CTU (CORE Caucus) is the willingness to take on the financial world and liberal elites while here the UFT is part of that world.

I was lucky in that I met many of the future leaders of the CTU over 10 years ago at a meeting in Los Angeles and over the years have learned which people can be trusted to give honest assessments instead of spin.

Here is an eloquent report on FB from a member of the bargaining team and an Ex Bd member of the CTU who was somewhat critical over the last contract in 2016.  I met her a few times when we were in Chicago and what passion as a teacher and activist. A hero to many. Following that is one of her pals, another wonderful guy I met, who respects with her but is voting NO. She does one of the best explanations of the power of a strike. My former MORE colleagues should take a page from her book when they push the idea here.

Over the years she has always been open about the problems inside the CTU and CORE, but if there were never problems we would be in a perfect world. She doesn't judge people as evidenced by this comment:

I will not tolerate folks belittling or “calling out” those who have made a rational appraisal of the wins/losses and decided that we must win more. I also respect members who are expressing gratitude for what we did win. This was an immensely difficult fight. Both sides can be right at the same time. This is a complicated and nuanced decision.

And important to me was that she respected the views of the late George Schmidt who was an internal critic of the leadership and was made to pay for it.

The key is to face disagreements and not bury them and this is something acolytes of the CTU and CORE on the left all too often do. Raise them up as a social justice union to some ideal standard in comparison to the so-called business unionism like they claim the UFT is -- see my recent post where I define some of the differences in the bargaining process where even some fans of our Unity Caucus agree that the UFT would have taken the originally offered 16% and run without even the thought of a strike: Bargaining for the Common Good: The UFT and the Chicago Teachers Union - A Sharp Contrast

From a CTU teacher, member of the bargaining team and ex bd:

After some time to reflect and process, I am left with a feeling of pride for the work we did as a united group of 35,000 workers standing up for justice.

We engaged in an open-ended strike with an unknown outcome, demanding BIG demands. This was not 2012, where the act of striking itself was the main objective. This was not a one day 2016 deal either. We spent over a year collecting proposals from our rank and file, processing them, and developing a list of truly transformational demands. We threw out the playbook of engaging in a 5-7 day demonstrative strike action and did a real, uncertain, terrifying strike against power and money. We went on the offensive to force those powerful and monied interests in this city to invest in our schools. After decades of disinvestment and sabotage.

Now, there were moments internally that were hard and nasty. This was a hard and nasty fight against a hard and nasty ruling class in this city. I won’t ignore those abuses. 

But now is a time for celebrating what we DID win. I want our members to feel the power of collective action. That those 11 days on the pickets and in the streets got us wins we were told were unwinnable. How we forced items like class sizes and staffing into this contract. Not at the levels we need, but it is now there forever more. This won’t be immediate, but we will have a nurse and social worker in every school. That’s not nothing. We won serious raises for our PSRPs, as well as our SECAs and bus aides, some of the lowest paid workers in our district. We won money for sports programs. We won guaranteed nap time and enforceable 10:1 staffing ratios for our Pre-K students. We fixed some of the main drivers of the sub crisis, including allowing banking of 200+ more sick days. We have paved the way for the fight on Student Based Budgeting and the School Quality Rating Policy, though I wish we’d gotten more. It looks like the 4.5 law, which restricts our bargaining rights, will finally be repealed. Using the strike weapon is why we won those items, and I want all members to understand the true power of withholding our labor. This strike mattered.

We did not win everything we needed. I am disappointed in the weak case manager allocations, the large class size caps (especially for middle school), and the fact that we were not able to win the kind of time/workload relief our members desperately need. I do believe we should have waged a more comprehensive and coordinated campaign on the morning prep time issue. Members in our elementary schools have been especially disrespected for too long. I believe those of us who fought for collaborative prep time were right to advocate for it. And I will keep fighting for equity for our 18,000 majority female elementary teachers and staff, time to fulfill the legal collaboration requirements of our IEPs, safety for our students, and respect for the complex work we do educating young children after this contract is ratified.

We pushed the boundaries of what is possible through a strike. We struck, side by side with our sister union SEIU 73, for the first time in our union’s history. And I will take some small piece of the credit for that victory of solidarity. I helped push that early on, and I believe it made our fight stronger. Though I was certainly not the only one that helped make this happen. So many others helped make that red & purple solidarity a thing!

We used more democracy than probably any other union, though often imperfect and rushed. I’ll take a small piece of the credit for that, too, as I believe that I, alongside my other fighter friends, helped push for more transparency and rank & file input. Not claiming we did it alone, by any means, but advocating from below is a powerful force to push us towards justice.

We didn’t drop most of our demands, even though there was certainly pressure to do so. 

I respect members who are a hard “no” on this TA. Five years is a long time to not have all that we need for better schools. And I will not tolerate folks belittling or “calling out” those who have made a rational appraisal of the wins/losses and decided that we must win more. I also respect members who are expressing gratitude for what we did win. This was an immensely difficult fight. Both sides can be right at the same time. This is a complicated and nuanced decision.

Regardless, the end of a contract fight is not the end of the overall fight. The attacks on public education are not over. The austerity project against public services has not ended. The ruling class will try to come for us. We fight on, somewhat broken and beaten up, because we must. Because our students deserve it. Because we are one of the only united forces that can stand up to the rich and their pillaging of our society’s wealth. We are truly the vanguard in the fight for justice.

Striking is a fundamentally transformative action. Seeing the creativity and the passion that our members demonstrated out there on the streets as well as the often crunchy, but I believe genuine, work inside the bargaining team, tells me we are nowhere near ready to give up.

I believe in us, our power as workers, and in continuing the push for collective struggle. Solidarity.

Below is a reply from another CORE member:

I appreciate this sentiment and I really appreciate all the work you put into this. I am a hard no, but I will not belittle those who are willing to accept this deal and I am very thankful for the work the BBT did. I’d love to make the sort of only the beginning bows we made in 2012, but I remember 2016 too well and with my teaching income pretty much stagnant for 13 years while expenses keep growing, I figure I probably should be focusing on savings rather than on education reform.

 

CORE Wins in Chicago, Supporters Express Concerns

I wrote about the Chicago union election last week -- Chicago Teachers Union CORE Caucus challenged by Members First.
CORE won the election but internally there are some serious concerns, as this excerpt signed by some key CORE people indicates:

...we recognize that many members are concerned about the direction of our union under the current CORE leadership team. We share many of those concerns. We are deeply sympathetic to members who feel that their working conditions, which are our students’ learning conditions, have been getting worse for years. As active rank-and-file teachers, clinicians, PSRPs, and school workers, we have experienced the bullying, the disrespect, the micromanaging, and the intense pressures and workloads personally.... it’s our contention the current leadership has made a series of mistakes that have deepened the defeats and taken us off the road to fighting back. One of the most concerning was the top-down decision of this leadership to call off a strike in 2016 accepting what we consider a weak contract. We also believe our union has not done a sufficient job defending members and our contract in the buildings and that leadership has become too far removed from the everyday abuses we experience. In addition, we are in deep disagreement with our leadership’s turn towards funding Democratic establishment politicians.... letter from CORE Supporters, including some founders

Sound familiar? The above, printed in full below, comes from a dissident faction internally within the CORE caucus - some of whom I have spoken to over the years and when they expressed some of their frustrations within the CTU. I spent a couple of days hanging out with some signees and other CORE people in Los Angeles back in July 2009, a year before CORE won. I heard from some of them as far back as 2012 and 2014 at AFT conventions. Some of them were among the top leadership but have left the leadership to go back in the classroom.

You won't read about these concerns from leftist social justice activists within CORE in the often fawning leftist press over CORE.

These dissidents are somewhat similar to the former dissidents within MORE - mostly people associated with the ICEUFT wing of MORE who have been pushed out by people with similar ideologies to the leadership of the CTU --- many of the people in ICEUFT do not cede the SJ interpretation to the ideologues. What is clear, it that since similar issues are being raised in other caucuses, this is a fundamental political disagreement and not personal --- which is often raised by people who want to hide the politics. I think what happened in MORE is happening in other places too.

Update on Chicago Teachers Union, LA's UTLA Authorize Strike

Past contract negotiations have been about wages and benefits, but the union under Lewis and Sharkey also has emphasized broader issues. Their caucus, called CORE, believes the teachers union should lead in the battle against the privatization of public education.... WBEZ News, Chicago 

I am going to be doing a batch of blogs on the various social justice teacher groups around the nation, not as a fan boy as so many on the left seem to be, but with an eye towards analysis. The three biggest cities - NYC, Chicago and LA all have versions of social justice groups, with the latter in control of the union while MORE in NYC has made little progress and in fact I would say it has gone backwards since its founding in 2012 as an outcome of the victory of CORE in Chicago in 2010. I found this comment interesting:

Lewis and her leadership team became a force by taking on broader social justice issues affecting students, schools, and their members. Since their election in 2010, they have fought for strong, equitable public schools, peaceful neighborhoods, and affordable housing. The CTU’s current leadership says these battles are still of the utmost importance, but they also plan to focus squarely on bread and butter union issues. 

One of the charges in Chicago has been that the leadership was too focused on SJ and not enough on bread and butter, leading to the formation of a caucus called Members First, which will challenge CORE in the upcoming elections. We have had the same discussion in MORE here in NYC which caused so much rancor, it led to people leaving or being pushed out. (More on the MORE divides in upcoming posts.)

I will post updates on Chicago and LA teacher unions. They are of particular interest in that the leaderships of both are social justice oriented. The CTU has been run by the CORE caucus since the 2010 election, an event that inspired teacher groups around the nation to organize local caucuses. MORE in NYC is one such example. With Karen Lewis, a black woman, about to retire, VP Jesse Sharkey, a white male, is expected to take over. In the world of identity politics so dominant on the left/SJ world, this can get sticky. Thus there is some battling going on over who will be the VP and identity politics is playing a role from what I hear. The 2012 strike by the CTU was a sort of shot heard around the world in education activist circles.

In LA, I'm not clear whether there is one controlling caucus or a coalition of progressives. But Alex Caputo-Pearl, also a white male, is a strong and progressive leader and will almost definitely lead them into a strike -- as I write this Diane Ravitch just reported the strike vote was in:

Diane Ravitch's blog: Los Angeles: Teachers Authorize Strike - This just in: ** MEDIA ADVISORY ** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
First up today is a story about the CTU from WBEZ News with what seems like a fairly honest assessment of where things are with the CTU where there will be an election taking place this spring at the same time there will be one here in NYC. Note this:

Emphasizing wages and benefits, as well as firing up members around contract negotiations, could be a strategic move for a union coming under pressure from all sides. 

Internal and external struggles 

At the moment, there’s an internal struggle in the union about how and when to replace Lewis. Also, Lewis and Sharkey’s leadership team, which faced so little opposition three years ago they didn’t hold an election, looks like it will face a challenge this spring when their term expires. 

The story delves into the finances of the CTU - from one of the CORE founders George Schmidt, who has been on the outs with the CORE and CTU leaders over his reporting, we have heard some questions over expenditures but I don't have the full story at this point.

WBEZ News

 

Uncertain Future For Chicago Teachers Union
https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/uncertain-future-for-chicago-teachers-union/1f4ec7b6-69af-43b1-a2b7-694a8b408105

Chicago: Rahm sends police to protect crew sent to destroy historic community center... Rahm, Barbara Byrd Bennett order destruction of 'La Casita'

Norm, Lisa, Gloria, George Schmidt with La Casita Occupier, July 2011 (Thnks to Gloria)

Reports all day coming in from Substance on this open warfare by the ed deformer/neo-liberals on the community. You can follow events on the Substance web site.

Two years ago at our last meetings in Chicago we went to La Casita for a few hours to talk to people - George Schmidt gave us a tour. I will hunt down that video and post it tomorrow.

We are at war. It has been declared on us. We are in middle of a field without cover (of our union especially) and they are using every weapon they can throw at us and somehow the real reformers are still standing - and fighting back with pea shooters (and Ravitch) against drones, tanks, mortars, cluster bombs, etc. 

Here are links to reports in reverse order.

THEY TORE IT DOWN BEFORE OUR EYES!' CPS contractor begins to destroy La Casita despite library treasures and supposed 'asbestos danger'

By Kati Gilson - August 17th, 2013 | 2 comments

LA CASITA IS NO MORE. By a little after ten o'clock in the morning, Board of Education contractors had leveled the library that had been created by the demands of a community that did not . . .

La Casita protests continue through the night of August 16 - August 17, 2013 after police arrest three people... Chicago Public Schools blocked trying to demolish iconic 'La Casita' community center

By Kati Gilson - August 17th, 2013 | 1 comment

It all started when a 6:45 dance class at La Casita was about to start. At 6:30, a community meeting was being held within the building called "La Casita," the "Little House" adjacent to Whittier . . .

Rahm sends police to protect crew sent to destroy historic community center... Rahm, Barbara Byrd Bennett order destruction of 'La Casita'

By John Kugler - August 17th, 2013 | 1 comment

In a brazen move reminiscent of the midnight destruction of Meigs Field by his predecessor, Richard M. Daley, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his handpicked schools "Chief Executive Officer" Barbara Byrd Bennett dispatched the Chicago . . .

Closing Schools: 3 Day March in Chicago Plus Lee Sustar Analysis

Above, left to right, Al Ramirez, CORE co-chairman, Kristine Mayle, CTU Financial Secretary, Karen Lewis, CTU Preisdent, Michael Brunson, CTU Recording Secretary, Jesse Sharkey, CTU Vice President, and Nate Goldbaum, CORE co-chair. Substance photo by Howard Heath.

Three years ago at this time all these guys were teaching. I really think it takes being in the classroom during the ed deform movement to get people to a stage where they refuse to accept the tenets of ed deform, as our leaders at the AFT and the UFT have done so readily. I know Al and Kristine from hanging out with them in LA in 2009 and have gotten to know the others over the years.

I'm doing a lot on the Chicago story because it has so much relevance for all teachers. Their union election is tomorrow in the schools (so unlike here - some people think it is a reason they have a higher turnout but also an opportunity for a party like Unity to cheat --- but then again how much more can they win by?) Also retirees don't vote.

The action against the closing of 54 schools begins the next day with a 3-day march. While it is clear Emanuel was going to close many schools no matter what, some of our Unity Caucus slug-like comments tried to paint the closings in this light: see what you get for being militant rather than "cooperative" like we are?

They filed suit over the closing schools. Here are reports from anti-CTU press (Times, Sun-Times).

Well the Unity-like opposition to CORE ran the union into the ground as was pointed out by Jim Vail in our posts last night. (Critic Endorses CORE and Lewis in CTU Elections While Trashing AFT and Randi-like Opposition).

I assume CORE is expecting to win. Hopefully BIG. The opposition is such a joke let's hope the CTU members get it. Imagine here in NYC that MORE were to win and Unity comes back in the next election running on a campaign of opposing many of the things they did that caused them to lose in the first place. Like can't you see Unity attack that we didn't eliminate ATRs?

• Eterno at ICE blog endorses Lewis: CHICAGO TEACHERS NEED TO REELECT KAREN LEWIS TOMORROW

George Schmidt, who will be in NYC for the weekend and we are hanging out Sunday morning for the inside scoop, posted Lee Sustar's analysis from the Socialist Worker on Substance.

CTU election on May 17, 2013 pits CORE against the 'Coalition to Save Our Union'... The issue is who has held the line for Chicago teachers during a year when American Federation of Teachers locals have been in retreat across the USA

I love it when people make the analogy to the failing AFT/UFT strategies. (Just check the outcomes in Washington, Newark, Detroit, NYC, Baltimore, Hartford and pre-CORE Chicago).

Sustar (who I sit with in the press section at AFT conventions and is a delight to chat with as he is so knowledgeable) opens with:

The challengers in the Chicago Teachers Union's (CTU) May 17 elections accuse union President Karen Lewis and the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE) leadership of "squandering" last September's strike and giving ground on pay, health care, pensions and seniority.
Lewis and other CTU officials never shied away from addressing the problems in the agreement that ended the nine-day strike. As Lewis often puts it, "It was the contract we could get." But the truth is the Chicago teachers' strike successfully resisted the corporate education reform juggernaut on all the key issues--and strengthened the contract in other areas. 

HERE'S A look at the key issues: Pay
, Job security, Pensions, Health care, Union power in the schools, 

Get the details at Substance.

 

	Stand Strong for Our Schools
The Three-Day March for Educational Justice in Chicago ctunet.com/ourvoice Saturday, May 18 Sunday,    May 19 Monday,   May 20 The mayor and Board of Education want to destroy 54 school communities. This will be the largest destruction of schools in U.S. history. We need our neighborhood schools and we should all fight together to save them. Join parents, teachers, students, public school workers, clergy, activists and others in the threeday citywide march across the city. They want to divide us. But this is our city, our schools, and together, we’ll use our voice to tell the mayor and the world that we intend to fight back. Learn more and sign up at: CTUNET.COM/OURVOICE

I Echo Jersey Jazzman in Support for CORE in CTU Election on Friday

Aside from everything else, just look at the ed deformers supporting Karen Lewis' opponents: The soon to be owned by Koch brothers Chicago Tribune and Fox News. And it a group like MORE were to ever seriously challenge Unity you would see the same type of reaction from the local ed deformers to those "anti reform radicals."

In Chicago they vote in the schools on one day - Friday May 17. Poll watching is in important factor. They have a much higher percentage of voters than here in NYC and retirees have no impact on the election. George and Sharron Schmidt are coming town this weekend and I'm getting together with them for breakfast Sunday morning so I hope to get the firsthand scoop.

There is no point in my writing something when someone like Jersey Jazzman does it so well.

Karen Lewis for CTU President

Up until now, I've stayed out of the internal politics of teachers unions. I outlined my many reservations about the Newark contract, but I didn't feel it was right to tell teachers to vote it up or down. I had my preferences in the New York City teachers union elections as well, but I kept my mouth shut, because I didn't think I had anything to add that was helpful.

But I'm going to make an exception today: Chicago teachers, please re-elect Karen Lewis as the President of the Chicago Teachers Union.

No one has done more to make unions relevant again than Karen Lewis. The Chicago teachers strike was a wake-up call to monied corporate interests everywhere; they learned, the hard way, that organized working people are a force not to be trifled with. That strike never would have happened without the brains, skills, and resolve of Lewis.

Chicago teachers, you need someone who is going to stand toe-to-toe with the likes of the obnoxious and odious Bruce Rauner and the insufferably smug and hypocritical Rahm Enamuel. Karen Lewis has proved, time and again, that she is not in the slightest bit intimidated by these foes of the working class and Chicago's children.

Now, I'm all for a spirited campaign with a sincere debate about the record of the incumbent. Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be what Chicago's teachers are getting:

During the contract negotiations last summer, Karen Lewis established the "Big Bargaining Team," and designed it to be inclusive. That team included Tanya Saunders Wolffe and Mark Ochoa. Today, both of them are claiming that the CTU leadership failed to negotiate a "moratorium" on school closings. But they didn't mention that during the months they were actually with the union's leadership at the bargaining table. Nor have they admitted, although they will soon have to, that it was illegal for the Chicago Teachers Union to bargain over school closings (a management right) unless CPS agreed to it, and CPS didn't. [emphasis mine]

It's really easy for these Monday morning quarterbacks to come in and complain that Lewis didn't get them everything they think they deserve. But there's little doubt, give the dysfunction of the CTU before Lewis took over, that things would have been far, far worse were she and her team not at the reins. Lewis's CORE slate has shown they can get the job done; the other side may (or may not) mean well, but they simply aren't ready for the big game.

And if you need further proof that the plutocrats are afraid of Lewis, simply look at the fawning treatment Lewis's opponent has received from corporate media shills like the Chicago Tribune and Fox News. For me, that alone is enough reason to vote for Lewis.

Chicago teachers, I hope you understand how lucky you are to have this woman as your local's president. I hope you understand how many teachers outside of Chicago wish they had a strong labor leader willing to stand up for their rights. I hope you appreciate what Lewis means to the rest of us outside of Chicago. I saw Lewis speak to a group of teachers in New York City, and it was like watching a rock star; she is that beloved, and she is that good.

Do yourself a favor, Chicago: vote Karen Lewis and the CORE slate this Friday.

Chicago Teachers Union Plans 3 Day March to Oppose School Closings

....while the UFT does......

The march will begin March 18, the day after the Chicago union elections, a sign that CORE is pretty confident. Expect a vicious attack on them from the mainstream press in the days before the election to try to influence the vote.
I know that some Unity people are rooting against Karen Lewis, especially after she embarrassed the hell out of some of them when she appeared at the UFT last month and talked about how they gave up the perks when they got elected. Oh, sitting in that room at that moment was oh so much fun.

Well we know from some of the Unity comments on the blogs during the elections that they think that these school closings are what the CTU deserve for daring to stand up and strike instead of collaborating. Of course many of the 150 plus schools closed under Bloomberg through 2010 came WITH the UFT collaboration. The rest had court, not street resistance. Given a choice, would Bloomberg prefer the current Unity leadership of a Chicago-like leadership? One MORE reason to come to Saturday's MORE meeting.

This just in from Diane Ravitch:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Stephanie Gadlin

May 9, 2013 312/329-6250

StephanieGadlin@ctulocal1.com

Thousands prepare for a three-day march against school closings as Chicago’s mayor continues his assault on working-class people under the guise of education reform

CHICAGO – As the city braces itself for the largest assault on public education in the country, thousands of parents, students, teachers, clergy, citizens and community leaders are preparing for a “long march” against school closings on May 18, 19 and 20. Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) President Karen Lewis said the non-violent demonstration is necessary because “we have a mayor who refuses to listen to reason, research and logic,” in his campaign to destroy 54 school communities which will impact about 50,000 children.

The 30-plus mile march is themed, “Our City. Our Schools. Our Voice,” and will include simultaneous routes from the West and South sides of the city. Protestors intend to walk each day past many of the 54 school communities slated for closure and their efforts will culminate in a mass demonstration downtown. It is sponsored by the CTU, the Grassroots Education Movement, SEIU Local 1, Unite Here Local 1 and Chicago PEACE, an interdenominational coalition of clergy leaders from across the city. Donations are pouring in from across the country.

“Despite the testimony of thousands of parents, teachers and people who work and live in the school communities impacted, Rahm Emanuel is dedicated to entering the history books as having destroyed the most public schools in one year than anyone,” Lewis said. “He refuses to listen to independent hearing officers, law enforcement officials, educators, researchers, parents and the students themselves. We have no choice but to use the power of organizing and direct action to engage in what will be a long fight to restore sanity to our school district.”

The march kicks off at 10:00 a.m. on May 18 on the South Side at Jesse Owens Elementary School, 12450 S. State St., and on the near West Side at Jean de Lafayette Elementary School, 2714 W. Augusta Blvd.

“School closings hurt children academically and the mayor’s plan will also put thousands of students’ safety at risk and many public school employees may lose their jobs,” Lewis said. “We must do whatever is necessary to stop this assault on the working class and the poor. Instead of just getting angry we must organize. Tell Emanuel, the Board, the school CEO and their corporate sponsors that this is our city, these are our schools and we will use our voice to fight for justice.”

Independent hearing officers reviewed the Chicago Public Schools’ list of 54 slated closings and have recommended removing 14 from the list saying those schools don't meet the state standards and are in violation of the law. The mayor’s hand-picked Chicago Board of Education will vote on the issue on Wednesday, May 22. Shortly thereafter, a massive voter registration drive will commence throughout the city.

Chicago Teachers Union: Neo-liberalism is the Problem, UFT: Bloomberg is the Problem

It's neoliberalism, stupid.
Just head on over to the MORE blog and see all the Unity people crying about how they can't do much until the big bad Bloomberg is gone. Same as they did with Giuliani and at times Dinkins and with Koch and Lindsay before them. In Chicago they know where to place the blame and that gives them tools to fight back by educating the members as to the real threat -- that the neo-liberal assault by both Dems and Rep and not one mayor is the threat. What the UFT is trying to sell is that things might get marginally better. A losing proposition for the membership, but fine for the leaders who will always collect their 6 figure salaries. Note the level of hysteria in their comments. The idea of MORE winning and sending them back to teach is just a bit too much to bear.

..an increasing number of Democrats no longer even feigning to be troubled with placating unions–once seen as a central constituency for the party–or a broader agenda of equality and social justice, unionists and their partisans have grown increasingly exasperated at party policies that look more and more like those of Republicans. This is particularly true in the case of education reform, where Democrats have swallowed the Right’s free market orthodoxy whole. Much of the party appears to have given up on education as a public project. This is a shift that necessarily entails an attack on teachers and their unions. But like the rest of labor, American teachers unions have been unable to articulate a cogent critique of that shift within the Democratic Party and the policy proposals it has produced. The broader agenda has been occasionally challenged, but the sectors of the party pushing it have remained beyond reproach....The Chicago Teachers Union has made a decisive break with this approach.... Micah Uetricht

I received a note from Micah with links to articles on the Chicago TU and CORE story. Worth reading and I am looking forward to Micah's book which we will review here when it comes out. Just not this from our pal Kenzo Shibata: Proponents of the CTU’s bottom-up organizing style say there is no other way to win. “Top-down just does not work. It’s the style of the bosses,” says the CTU's Kenzo Shibata.

Mark Brenner, director of Labor Notes, an organization dedicated to fostering union democracy, says this commitment sets the CTU apart from much of American labor. “There’s a lot of cynicism in labor about the capacity of ordinary, working-class people to run their unions,” Brenner says. “Leaders think those people should have good lives, but they don’t think they have the capacity to do big things.” That cynicism, Brenner says, has prevented other unions from engaging members the way Chicago teachers have. “Even among ‘progressive’ unions, democracy is not high on the list of must-haves. That has really hurt our movement,” he says. “Democracy is what builds the capacity to take high-stakes, risky actions like the CTU did.”

Kit Wainer, running for high school exec bd, is quoted:

Other union leadership has been made skittish by the CTU example. Referring to a CORE-style caucus fighting a recently negotiated Newark Teachers Union contract introducing merit pay, NTU President Joe Del Grosso seemed nervous. “They had some signs there that we should follow Chicago’s lead,” Del Grosso recently told Working In These Times’ Josh Eidelson. “I think that’s very dangerous.”
In New York City, the Movement of Rank-and-File Educators (MORE), a dissident caucus challenging the current leadership of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), draws inspiration from the CTU’s rank-and-file democracy.
Kit Wainer, a social studies high school teacher and member of MORE, says that under the UFT’s current leadership, “There’s no real process for members to have any kind of direct say in the day-to-day direction of the union. There’s formal democracy, but no substantive democracy.”
The problem, Wainer says, is not that the UFT lacks a broad social-justice vision—it’s that rank-and-file teachers are not engaged in democratic practices within the union to enact that vision. “[UFT President Mike] Mulgrew talks about poverty, about charters as a privatization scheme by the rich,” Wainer says. “The problem is they won’t mobilize members to fight. Their idea of fighting is hiring lobbyists and lawyers to go to Albany, or buying TV commercials.”
If MORE’s slate can capture leadership like CORE, Wainer says, “We’d build up membership confidence and willingness to struggle. We could reteach members what the union is.”

Well, there's so much interesting stuff I want to print it all. So go forth and read. So many lessons for us here on the diffs from the UFT, especially in the approach where the UFT blames Bloomberg while the CTU blames neo-liberalism, a word the UFT will never use. Know why? Because a whole lot of neo-liberalism is built into their fabric.

Hi Norm,

My name is Micah Uetricht and I'm a writer in Chicago. I'm a subscriber to EdNotes and saw your post about the Ethan Young paper on the CTU and a bit of history about CORE in Chicago. Thought you might be interested in a short book I am currently at work on about the CTU that will be published by Verso in the summer. Obviously, CORE plays a central role in it, and the caucus gets its own chapter in the book, based on numerous interviews I've been doing with CORE members. 

It will be a little while before the book is out, but I thought I'd flag it for you anyway, in case you're interested. Also, here are two pieces I've recently written on the CTU:

http://jacobinmag.com/2012/12/ctu-and-dems/

http://inthesetimes.com/article/14207/democratic_to_the_core

This article (from the same issue of Jacobin that my piece on the CTU and the Democrats is in) was recently given to all 700-800 members of the CTU's House of Delegates. I think it's an extremely important piece about the transformation of education in the last several decades. And perhaps you know the author, Will Johnson. http://jacobinmag.com/2012/09/lean-production-whats-really-hurting-public-education/

In solidarity,

Micah

Assailed Teacher touches on the same theme about the teacher unions refusal to be critical of the Dem ed deformers.

MAYBE THIS GUY SHOULD RUN OUR UNION

Analysis of the CTU strike/how CORE changed the union Plus MORE

Kristine Mayle, one of the officers of the CTU, sent this link to Ethan Young's piece. This piece relates to the work MORE is trying to do.

I am most interested on the CORE organizing efforts within the union so I reprinted a section below. One of the key things they did was educate themselves. They first got together to read Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" to understand exactly what was going on and then transmitting that knowledge to other Chicago teachers. You don't get well over 90% of the members to support a strike in these times without this crucial understanding of the threat of neo-liberalism. Ask any Chicago activist teacher and they will know exactly what you are talking about. Ask any Unity Caucus member what neo-liberalism is and they will say "Only one year to get rid of Bloomberg." Duh! The UFT not only misinforms the rank and file but their own core Unity activists. (By the way, I hear Mulgrew is now using my "ed deform" expression all the time. I should have copyrighted.)

But I will point out a couple if inaccuracies. To say "decades-old" UPC (Unity style caucus) is missing the point that in 2001 an insurgent caucus led by Debbie Lynch defeated the UPC but Debbie then lost to them in a runoff in 2004 where she missed winning on the first round by a percentage point --- meaning that the UPC was a severely weakened caucus even though they won overwhelmingly in 2007. There were enough internal tensions inside the UPC to cause them to split and that opened the way for CORE which formed not long after this UPC 2007 win where they trounced Debbie's Caucus. It was clear there was a need for a new voice.

ASIDE:

Same with MORE in a sense. It was clear after the 2010 elections that ICE and TJC were just not going to be viable. There was pressure from a newer CORE-like generation of activists from groups like GEM (which some people take to be an ICE retread but in fact it was not, attracting people like Julie Cavanagh and others who would never have been involved with ICE. Also the NYCORE union wing wanted to get more involved, as did Teachers Unite. There was resistance from many in ICE and though I can't speak for TJC, there was clearly resistance to the idea of MORE too.

So even though I jumped on board the MORE idea given that I pretty much knew ICE was not going anywhere as far back as 2007, which was why I jumped on GEM in 2009 which was not a union oriented group but more active in opposing charters and defending public ed but clearly saw that without a union component --- and don't think the UFT hacks weren't sniping at GEM too -- and then played a role in bringing all the groups together to explore common actions and that morphed into MORE.

Back to CORE.
Ethan Young states: Within two years of rapid growth, CORE defeat- ed the old guard UPC with 60 percent of the vote....

That has to be put in context. In the first round in 2010 they came in 2nd to the UPC by a hair -- each getting around 33% -- a remarkable achievement for a new 2-year old caucus -- and something that if MORE accomplished would be a game-changer in the UFT. There were 5 caucuses running, including Debbie Lynch's which got about 15% and the UPC splitoffs. They all tossed their support to CORE for round 2 and that is where the 60% came from. Do not take lightly the fact that UPC still got 40%. With CORE being up for election this May they still need 50% to win without a runoff. Hopefully, CORE has built on its 33% but have they built enough to capture over 50%? That should be a fascinating election to watch.

Here in NYC we have the 23 year old New Action which has seen its support drop to a quarter of the support they used to have over the decade since making the dirty deal with Unity in 2003. I still believe if they had continued to be a real opposition they would be in a position to have kept winning the high schools where they used to get over 3000 votes. In 2010 they got 750 HS votes while ICE/TJC received 1350 (and Unity 2600). And in fact if they had actually organized instead of being happy to have their 6 Exec Bd seats they could have turned into MORE. But they made the wrong bet. Yet the leaders seem very happy and cozy with their little jobs and their gift 8 Exec bd seats. They would rather have a quarter of the support they had than actually put up a fight against Unity. In fact if MORE and New Action had pooled candidates for the high schools Unity couldn't win. But that wouldn't happen as long as NA supports Mulgrew.

Instead, MORE needs to get the same 3000+ votes New Action used to get. If MORE can educate teachers, especially in high schools, that a vote for New Action is a vote for Unity they could win these 7 EB seat away from the NA/Unity combo. If it were up to me I would put out a fact sheet on NA but it is not up to me. There are people in MORE who think that one day NA will turn on Unity once again and join the fray. I have no such hopes. But would love it if I was wrong.

Kristine Mayle

Read this! A really nice analysis of the CTU strike and how CORE changed the union.

TEACHERS ON STRIKE 

http://www.rosalux-nyc.org/teachers-on-strike/

When newly elected President Ronald Reagan fired more than 11,000 striking air traffic controllers in 1981, he was also firing the first shots in a new offensive against workers in the United States. The new logic of neoliberalism, with its insatiable appetite for low wages and powerless workers, ha…

DOWNLOAD PDF

Here's a section of the intro to the piece:

....All is not doom and gloom. In the midst of this onslaught, the Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU) has struck back with one of labor’s biggest victories in recent decades. The CTU strike of September 2012 brought together 26,000 workers to successfully fight a proposal by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to lengthen the school day by two hours with no pay raise, plus other measures intended to weaken the job secu-rity and voice of the city’s teachers. In the context of the so-called educational “reform” movement—a subterfuge by conservative and neoliberal forces intended to weaken the institution of public education—the CTU’s victory could prove crucial. In the larger war against public unions—the last major bastion of U.S. labor and only political player capable of challenging corporate dominance in the game of campaign finance—the labor movement has finally struck back.

In the following study, writer and activist Ethan Young dissects the CTU’s victory and draws lessons for the labor movement, and indeed the U.S. Left, on how to fight back and how to look forward.

Here is the section I am interested in sharing:

CTU elections in 2010 turned out the decades-old leadership group, United Progressive Caucus (UPC). The winners came from the relatively new Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE), with backing from an older dissident caucus, ProActive Chicago Teachers (PACT).

A handful of teachers formed CORE in 2008, at a moment of crisis for the CTU and of ongoing emergency in the school system. The leader- ship of UPC was split over a $2 million budget deficit. The union had lost more than 18% of its membership to firings resulting from then-mayor Richard M. Daley’s sweeping privatization plan. Daley put low-rated schools in “turnaround,” firing all staff and replacing them with selected newcomers.

The CORE founders first acquainted themselves with the neoliberal campaign as a whole, study- ing critical studies and analyses like Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine. They then targeted the demand for job security and the impact of standardized testing. As they took on new members, they set up committees with an eye toward expansion and public debate on Daley and Duncan’s plans for public education:

⇒ The Communication committee presented research findings on the system’s failures on its website and newsletter and prepared special material for CTU delegates’ meeting.
⇒ Outreach organized meetings with teachers around the city to discuss the issue of class size. CPS critics have long argued that aver- age classrooms are overstuffed and nearly useless for teaching purposes.
⇒ A committee focusing on the union’s House of Delegates planned interventions in the meetings of CTU school reps.
⇒ Advocacy planned special educational and agitational events.

CORE worked hard to share skills and informa- tion with new members, to help them get to the roots of the system’s failure in Daley’s policies. At the same time, they outlined key workforce issues: paid and pensionable family leave; use of scripted “learning” and high stakes testing; contractual rights to file grievances over class size; school closings; charter proliferation; and so-called merit pay, aimed at tossing out teachers in “problem” schools. They also included quality of education issues, such as lack of school libraries and air conditioning.

Chicago’s tradition of community organizing was a boon to the caucus. From the start, CORE sought allies at the community level. In August 2008, their first public panel discussion on edu- cation issues included speakers from the well-established community groups Blocks Together, Parents United for Responsible Education, The Pilsen Alliance, South West Youth Collaborative, Access Living, Clergy Committed to Community, and Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization. This was the start of an ongoing interaction, helping ground CTU members in broader community concerns, while putting education higher among those concerns for organizers in various “working class-based” social movements.

This is far from standard procedure for a big union. Without fanfare, CORE set a course that would move CTU from traditional “business unionism” to the (still mostly speculative) model proposed by some progressives, “social move- ment unionism.” It’s a big leap from strict collec- tive bargaining to incorporating the concerns of other social movements. For many unions, it’s a leap just to acknowledge that labor is a move- ment among other movements.

Within two years of rapid growth, CORE defeat- ed the old guard UPC with 60 percent of the vote....

For more download the pdf.

Counterpunch: The Meaning of the Chicago Teachers Strike

Cowardly and complicit union leaders—American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten being exhibit A—have gone along with this BS until blaming the teachers has become the default position of much of the country....The CTU now had a leadership and program not willing to play ball with the Democratic Party or the union bureaucracy....
This union leadership knew the first step in their counteroffensive was to engage their rank-and-file. They went school by school and teacher by teacher, to involve them in their union....they valued input from the ranks.  Next, they went to the communities. They were there when the parents protested for a library in the Pilsen neighborhood and they were there to protest every school closing that came up. They were on the offensive. This leadership also understood the importance of solidarity. I remember marching behind their banner in Madison. They were there for UNITE-HERE, they solidarized with the postal workers, they solidarized with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) workers.
.......
don’t confuse the strike with the contract. The strike was an overwhelming huge victory which I will explain. The contract, on the other hand, is a small victory for the teachers. In another period, it would have to be portrayed as a major concession. But, we are not in another period, rather, we are in a period of deep neoliberal attacks.
....
By the 1990s they had the private sector union movement small enough to drown in Grover Norquist’s bathtub. The labor union bureaucracy didn’t want to live to fight another day, but merely to stay on life support.
By this time phase three was in full assault mode. Go after the last bastion—the public sector.
....
The wealthy class never reconciled itself to the Progressive Era, The New Deal, or the Great Society. These were times of gains for us and, therefore, as they viewed it, losses for them.  --- Guy Miller

What a great analysis by Guy Miller. He nails what made the CTU strong -- a class conscious leadership willing to stand up to the ruling class. You know this sounds radical. Well, our union leaders have made the word "strike" a dirty word. I was in Chicago with a bunch of GEM folks in July 2009 with about 200 other union activists from around the nation. We held a march and rally and visited one bank after another that had been raping the Chicago schools. Know your real enemy.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/09/26/what-really-happened-in-chicago/

September 26, 2012

The Meaning of the Chicago Teachers' Strike

What Really Happened in Chicago

by GUY MILLER

First, there was Madison, a welcome flash of lightning awakening us from the long, quiet night of labor passivity. The events came fast and hard and thousands flowed into the capital square and were ready for a showdown.
But, with a vacuum of street leadership, it only took a few weeks for the Democratic Party and the union bureaucracy to channel this potential energy into a moribund recall Governor Walker effort.

Half a year later came the Occupy Movement, involving tens of thousands of new activists, in a brave stand against Wall Street’s plan of austerity for us, and profits for them. Again, lack of leadership and direction slowed this movement to a crawl and provided an opening for the forces of repression to step in.

Building on these fight-backs, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) was preparing to confront Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his billionaire cronies in a fight for public education. I was a participant in the Chicago Teachers Solidarity Campaign, an organization formed to support the CTU during the strike, and these are some of my observations.

To begin with, don’t confuse the strike with the contract. The strike was an overwhelming huge victory which I will explain. The contract, on the other hand, is a small victory for the teachers. In another period, it would have to be portrayed as a major concession. But, we are not in another period, rather, we are in a period of deep neoliberal attacks.

We are in a world where the rich class has had its way for over thirty years, with a working class and trade union movement so timid and on the defensive that all they seem to want is to hide and not be noticed. A trade union movement, whose answer to every question is to cling to the outside of a lifeboat with “Democratic Party” stenciled across its bow. There they cling, frightened of sharks, dehydration and drowning.

Since the middle of the 1970s, a very organized and coordinated attack has come down on the working people of this country. Phase one was to establish a narrative of greedy workers and put-upon management. Phase two was to begin chipping away at the private sector unions. Here, of course, they had a couple of advantages—outsourcing and downsizing.
Slowly, they either moved jobs out of the North to the South or sent them overseas, or forced those remaining industries to accept less and less.

By the 1990s they had the private sector union movement small enough to drown in Grover Norquist’s bathtub. The labor union bureaucracy didn’t want to live to fight another day, but merely to stay on life support.
By this time phase three was in full assault mode. Go after the last bastion—the public sector.

At the same time, they increased the ideological fight against “big government.” The wealthy class never reconciled itself to the Progressive Era, The New Deal, or the Great Society. These were times of gains for us and, therefore, as they viewed it, losses for them. They regrouped, no longer willing to tolerate interference with their heightened need to accumulate capital in this long period of increased international competition.

The public sector seemed to be as easy pickings as did the private sector. Again, the wealthy class didn’t try to be a python and absorb the whole meal at once.

Instead, they initiated an ideological campaign backed by think tanks, foundations, and the media. Here, the lynchpin was, and is, the teachers’ unions across the country.

It is not an accident that the richest of the rich have been in the forefront of this narrative of failing schools, failing kids and failing teachers.
Start with Bill Gates, who has moved from mosquito nets to charter schools, testing and union busting as his idee fixe.

Next the Walton Family, who never saw a union they didn’t want to bust. The Kochs. The Pritzkers. Almost all the hedge fund managers, bankers and other CEOs are united in their hatred for public education.

Here, it must be pointed out that both the Democrats and Republicans have bought into this “reform” story. Arne Duncan, Rahm Emanuel, and Barack Obama buy totally into this approach, and they ain’t Sarah Palin.

Over the last ten years or so these people have had their way. Cowardly and complicit union leaders—American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten being exhibit A—have gone along with this BS until blaming the teachers has become the default position of much of the country.

No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top are two sides of the same coin. Flip that coin and the problem is—the teachers. Not poverty. Not lack of childcare. Not crumbling infrastructure or adequate funding, just greedy teachers and their obstructionist unions.

No one, nowhere, has challenged this vicious cycle. Then along comes the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE) victory, electing Karen Lewis to the CTU presidency in 2010, and with it a whole new ballgame.

The CTU now had a leadership and program not willing to play ball with the Democratic Party or the union bureaucracy. This is a leadership with many experienced class struggle people who understand what must be done—Say no to Rahm. Say no to the Gates and Say no to the Pritzkers. Say no to a corporate agenda for the schools. Say no to a vision of the future where children are drones taught just enough to become cogs in their machine.

This union leadership knew the first step in their counteroffensive was to engage their rank-and-file. They went school by school and teacher by teacher, to involve them in their union. Unlike the Vaughn and Stewart union administrations before it, they valued input from the ranks.

Next, they went to the communities. They were there when the parents protested for a library in the Pilsen neighborhood and they were there to protest every school closing that came up. They were on the offensive.
This leadership also understood the importance of solidarity. I remember marching behind their banner in Madison. They were there for UNITE-HERE, they solidarized with the postal workers, they solidarized with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) workers.

This leadership kept the membership mobilized. Town Hall meetings. Mass demonstrations at the Auditorium Theater. Labor Day rallies. And more. They did not run and hide.

This leadership fought against racism. They stood for ending the disproportionate firing of African Americans teachers. This leadership stood for libraries, smaller class sizes, art teachers, music teachers, gym teachers, nurses and counselors.

When Rahm and his arrogant school board came with their one-sided proposals and their insulting refusal on the four percent raise, they thought they could roll right over the CTU and have their way.

After all, didn’t Rahm get his way as Obama’s-Chief-of-Staff ? Didn’t he get his way as Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee? Antiwar Democrats? Irrelevant. Progressives? Fucking retards. Yes, he had his way until he ran into Karen Lewis and the class-conscious leadership of the CTU.

The CTU stayed visible. The CTU engaged allies; other unions, the community and students (the Voices of Youth high school students were really inspiring). They did not fold up at the first sign of adversity.
So my evaluation is—the strike was a huge success. It serves as a template and a model of how to fight the seemingly invincible juggernaut. The juggernaut that thinks it controls the future.

Long Live the CTU! Long Live solidarity!

Guy Miller is a 66-year-old native Chicagoan. He worked for 38 years as a switchman on the Chicago Northwestern and Union Pacific Railroads, a proud member of local 577 of the United Transportation Union before retiring in 2008. Currently, he works in a Chicago supermarket and is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 881.