Rahm vs. the Teachers Union II? Teachers Vote To Strike, Will Politics Play Differently This Time

 

Now, only three years later, that machinery is reassembling itself for Round Two. On Wednesday, the 27,000-member union will begin a strike authorization vote that could take as little as three days, a necessary step before the union members can strike again over their contract which expired in June. Though a strike is not likely before May because of lengthy procedural steps the district and the union must take first, both sides are already strategizing to drum up public support.

The Chicago Teachers Union, which emerged from the 2012 strike bolder and more powerful than before, is again going up against Emanuel, whose political stock is plummeting over the shooting death of a 17-year black teenager by a white cop. But complicating the equation is a state budget impasse in Springfield that puts the union in danger of asking for too much too soon from a cash-strapped school system threatening to hand pink slips to teachers.

When the Chicago Teachers Union first announced it was striking in 2012, who would emerge as the political winner remained an open question. Emanuel called the CTU’s actions a “strike of choice” in an effort to cast their actions as an unnecessary negotiating tactic that hurt Chicago families.  

But the CTU was able to politically capitalize not only on the discontent among its own ranks but also among some parent communities by arguing that the mayor was beholden to corporate interests and out of touch with city residents.

That May a poll conducted by The Chicago Tribune found that 40 percent of city voters supported the union compared to 17 percent who supported Emanuel’s education agenda. Support for the union was even larger among city parents (A 2014 follow-up poll by the newspaper showed that the two-thirds of the city sided with the union on education issues over Emanuel).

“In 2012, the bargaining became a community affair,” said Robert Bruno, director of the University of Illinois’ labor education program. “This was clearly a community-wide struggle. That had never been the case before.”

In the end, the city agreed to increase teacher salaries, hire more educators to support existing teachers at elementary schools where the school day would be lengthened. Student test scores would be phased in, eventually making up 30 percent of a teacher’s evaluation as dictated by a newly passed state law.

“We severely underestimated the ability of the Chicago Teachers’ Union to lead a massive grassroots campaign against our administration. It’s a lesson for all of us in the reform community,” former city schools Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard told the Thomas Fordham Institute a year after the strike.

The success of the teachers strike in Chicago prompted conversations among unions and progressive groups across the country; The American Federation of Teachers planned a series of town halls in urban areas to talk about the issues the strike brought up, according to The Washington Post. In Illinois, teachers unions in Grayslake, Lake Forest, Dixon and other communities reportedly held their own strikes after the Chicago standoff.

To make matters worse for Emanuel, Lewis became a household name as she considered running against him in the 2015 election but declined after being diagnosed with brain cancer.

The CTU then recruited Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia, a Cook County commissioner with a low profile who was able to force Emanuel into an embarrassing runoff election with the union’s support. Garcia lost, but put up an impressive fight against a sitting mayor with a much larger financial war chest. The Chicago Teachers Union was also able to ensure the victory of union member Susan Sadlowski Garza for alderman in Chicago’s 10th Ward.

The union is asking for hundreds more counselors and case managers, a 3 percent salary increase, 1,000 school nurses, psychologists and social workers and pay for snow days, the school district told The Chicago Tribune. On top of those requests, a union request to decrease class sizes would require the hiring 5,000 more teachers, putting the total cost of its proposal at more than a $1 billion, the newspaper said.

In Illinois, the state pays for every school district’s share of teacher pension payments — except Chicago’s. Individual educators are also required by law to contribute 9.4 percent of their salary into the retirement system, but 64 percent of school districts have negotiated with local unions to pick up teachers’ required contributions, according to the Illinois Policy Institute, a local think tank.

The city would also like the teachers union to turn its attention to the state capitol in Springfield. Newly appointed Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool has said publicly that unless the state shoulders more of the school district’s pension liabilities, the city will have to layoff thousands of teachers and increase class sizes. The district has said the layoffs could take effect on Feb. 8.

“Parents should not have to wonder each year if a program that is helping their child will be eliminated by budget cuts, and principals should not lose sleep over the thought of raising class sizes or laying off staff,” he wrote in an editorial in The Chicago Tribune. “And our retirees should not have to suffer anxiety over the state of their pensions — not after dedicating their professional lives to the children of Chicago.”

For months, the state legislature and newly-elected Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican businessman, have been in a budget impasse. As Illinois’ unpaid bills tally up in the billions, Rauner and the Democratically-controlled state legislature have yet to pass a permanent budget either side can agree on.

And though Rauner and Emanuel are reportedly friends, the governor ran on a platform of fighting unions and cushy public benefits and Emanuel backed the governor’s Democratic competitor. Critical state lawmakers also contend the city’s public school system has access to types of financial resources other school districts don’t.

“With Illinois ranking almost lowest in education funding, schools strapped for money, cuts looming, why is the union choosing to battle the city for money it doesn't have? Why not join forces to push for increased state funding?,” she wrote in an editorial in The Chicago Tribune.

That same day Superintendent Claypool made a plea in a press conference to the union to help them lobby state lawmakers for more money, according to The Chicago Tribune.