Subject: [SocialistWorker.org] How can the Chicago Teachers Union win?
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http://socialistworker.org/2012/06/26/how-can-the-ctu-win
Analysis: Lee Sustar
======== HOW CAN THE CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION WIN? =============================
Lee Sustar looks at the prospects for a possible Chicago Teachers Union
strike.
June 26, 2012
BIG STRIKE authorization votes by unions in tough contract battles aren't
unusual. But the recent 90 percent vote by members of the Chicago Teachers
Union (CTU) to back a possible walkout was different--and it sets the stage
for a contract showdown that will shape the battle to defend public education
across the U.S.
Nearly 90 percent of the members voted to empower union leaders to call a
strike [1]--of teachers who cast a ballot, an incredible 98 percent marked
"yes." Just 482 teachers--1.82 percent of the membership--voted against a
strike authorization, but because of an anti-union law, union members who
failed to cast ballots were counted as voting against a strike. Of 26,502
members eligible to vote, 23,780 voted "yes."
Facing a 20 percent increase in their workday and a proposed 2 percent pay
raise, teachers, office staff and other CTU members sent the clearest
possible message of resolve in their fight for what they deserve. The
overwhelming vote gives CTU negotiators leverage at the bargaining table by
allowing union officials to call a strike if necessary.
The early June vote followed an electric mass rally on May 23 rally where
more than 4,000 teachers jammed a downtown auditorium and 2,000 more union
members and supporters rallied in a nearby park.
CTU members--who include not just teachers, but office staff and aides--are
acutely aware that they're taking a stand in President Barack Obama's
hometown on the eve of a close election. But rather than being intimidated,
they're determined--and the rally gave expression to the same feelings of
anger and defiance seen in last year's labor uprising in Wisconsin and the
height of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
"It was excellent, very inspiring," Mayra Almarez, a history teacher at Taft
High School on the city's North Side, said of the rally. "Sometimes its
really hard to continue when, in the media, you hear that we're aggressive,
we're this, we're that, we're not in it for the right reasons--when in
reality, we are. It was great to see we are supported by other people, by
parents."
Asked if teachers at Taft are prepared to walk a picket line if necessary,
she replied, "Absolutely. We're ready."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
THE RALLY and strike authorization vote were the capstone of two years of
effort by the CTU leadership to revitalize what had been a dysfunctional and
declining union.
The new leadership's first act upon taking office in 2010 was to cut the
union officers' pay and devote the money to internal organizing--getting
organizers into the schools and strengthening organization at the school
site. By late 2010, when Rahm Emanuel, until recently Obama's chief of staff,
launched his mayoral election campaign in Chicago by bashing teachers, the
union was already in motion.
The Chicago teachers' fight for justice also has national significance
because the city has been a testing ground for "school reform" since 1995,
when the state legislature handed then-Mayor Richard M. Daley direct control
of the schools and stripped the CTU of its right to strike for 18 months.
Daley's second schools CEO, Arne Duncan, oversaw the closure of
low-performing schools and the proliferation of charters [2], which propelled
him to the post of Obama's Education Secretary. In that role, he worked
closely with Emanuel to take the Chicago agenda across the U.S. Their tool
was the Race to the Top initiative [3], a $4.3 billion pool of federal grants
doled out to states if they passed laws that open the door to charter schools
and undermine teachers' job security by limiting tenure and imposing merit
pay.
That was CTU President Karen Lewis' first point in her speech at the raucous
May 23 union rally:
>Some people don't believe me, but this is a national fight. All across this
>country, teachers, clinicians and paraprofessionals are fighting failed
>status quo reforms. School districts have become emboldened--and what have
>they done? They've become emboldened, because rich people are now writing
>the laws. Rich people, who never send their children to public schools, are
>making the policy. And nationwide, everyone-- everyone--is facing the loss
>of their collective bargaining rights. Look at Wisconsin. Look at Indiana.
>We are surrounded by that, brothers and sisters. So why are we here?
>
A man in the audience answered with a shout: "Str-i-i-i-ke!" Teachers took up
the chant, "Strike! Strike! Strike!" as someone sounded a vuvuzela, the
noisemaker made famous during the World Cup soccer tournament in South Africa
in 2010.
If Rahm Emanuel wants to pick a fight, the CTU is ready. In an interview
following the rally, Lewis said that teachers and other CTU members aren't
intimidated by Emanuel, and alluded to the national effort to raise awareness
of threatening behavior in the schools: "See a bully, stop a bully. It's a
campaign, right?"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CLEARLY, EMANUEL sees his confrontation with the CTU as critical to his
political ambitions. He made schools a signature part of his mayoral
campaign, and it's been central to his national political profile [4] before
that.
Thus, Emanuel's allies have responded to the teacher's strike authorization
with radio ads that try to depict the vote as an example of greedy teachers
versus needy kids. In reality, the opposite is the case. The CTU has linked
its demands for fair compensation for teachers to the fight for fully funded
and enriched public education--by fighting school closures and budget cuts in
close collaboration with neighborhood organizations and parents' groups. This
has put the union at the center of an emerging social movement to save
Chicago schools and stop the proliferation of nonunion charter schools.
Along with the CTU, that movement for public education must now contend with
the anti-teacher backlash orchestrated by Emanuel, the Democratic Party
machine, the city's business establishment and the anti-union "school reform"
groups.
Emanuel and Co. are well aware of the potential power of an alliance between
the CTU and the community, and fear that it could rally wider working-class
support against the mayor's agenda of slashing social services, privatizing
city functions and handing out tax breaks for big business. That's why, even
before taking office, Emanuel sat down with a key Illinois legislator [5] to
insist on passage of a law, known as SB 7, that severely restricted the CTU's
right to strike.
Under SB 7--which applies only to Chicago--at least 75 percent of all CTU
members must cast a "yes" vote to legally authorize a strike. As the
corporate-driven school "reform" hit man, Jonah Edelman of Stand for
Children, boasted on video [6], the law was designed to effectively bar a
Chicago teachers' strike. "In effect, they wouldn't have the ability to
strike, even though the right was maintained," Edelman declared. "The unions
cannot strike in Chicago. They will never be able to muster the 75 percent."
For their part, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) officials were apparently so
confident a teachers' strike was impossible that they agreed to the CTU's
negotiations timeline that makes a strike possible in September, rather than
using other provisions in SB7 [7] that could have postponed a legal walkout.
They were smug because they believed the new CTU leadership--classroom
teachers propelled into office in the May 2010 election on the militant
Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE) slate--wouldn't be able to unite the
union behind it.
As Chicago television anchor Walter Jacobson wrote [8] on the eve of the CTU
elections, "The bosses downtown are rooting for the rookies to get them to a
bargaining table and eat them alive."
It sure didn't turn out that way. Emanuel and his hand-picked school board,
which includes business executives and political hacks, among them
billionaire Penny Pritzker, antagonized teachers by rescinding a previously
negotiated 4 percent raise [9]. As a follow-up, Emanuel and Chicago Schools
CEO Jean-Claude Brizard violated the union contract by bribing teachers at a
handful of schools [10] to adopt a longer school day in exchange for bonuses
and extra cash for school programs. Next, Brizard announced a hit list of 17
schools to be closed or "turned around"--and despite protests, school
occupations and heartfelt appeals from parents, students and teachers, the
school board rubber-stamped Brizard's decision.
Even so,
the effort to keep the schools open
linked the CTU more closely with activist networks like Teachers for Social
Justice [11] and community groups like the Kenwood-Oakland Community
Organization [12] and Occupy Chicago [13]. Together, KOCO and Occupy
activists organized a "mic check" that succeeded in shutting down a Board of
Education meeting. The school closures, which had been a routine story given
perfunctory media attention, became a major issue.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
MEANWHILE, BY pushing to lengthen Chicago's 5-hour, 45-minute school day to
seven and a half hours, Emanuel alienated middle-class parent groups like
Raise Your Hand [14] that he'd tried to play off against the CTU.
The mayor's partial retreat
--the elementary school day increase to seven hours--didn't go over well,
either, since it's accompanied by budget cuts aimed at closing what CPS
claims is a $700 million deficit [15].
The combination of a longer school day and a smaller budget led to the
creation of a new alliance of parent and community groups, Chicago Parents
for Quality Education. Despite having various positions on the longer school
day, the organizations are united behind a demand for increased funding for
schools [16].
One group in the alliance, Parents 4 Teachers [17] (P4T), was formed with the
explicit aim of supporting the CTU. As P4T states on its website, blaming
teachers "diverts attention from the real problems in education, like
under-resourced schools, large class size and high-stakes testing."
However, under the 1995 state law governing Chicago schools, the CTU can't
negotiate about anything other than pay and benefits. That means the union
can't bargain over critical issues like class size and the need for improved
social services for kids unless CPS agrees to make those issues part of
negotiations.
That's why CTU has focused on demands for a pay increase--the replacement of
last year's 4 percent raise canceled by CPS and an additional increase to
compensate teachers for the longer school day. CPS and Emanuel responded by
attacking the CTU for asking for more money at a time when many workers are
enduring pay cuts. Yet it is only by asking for just compensation that the
CTU can defend union members /and/ force CPS and Emanuel to widen the scope
of bargaining.
Though the CTU is barred from bringing up key classroom and social issues in
negotiations, the union has championed increased school funding and
progressive policies in its document, "The Schools Our Students Deserve."
[18]
Where the union old guard was mostly silent on such topics, the CTU's
publication substantiated the new leadership's calls for smaller class sizes;
an enriched curriculum with art and music at all schools, rather than just
magnet and selective enrollment schools; and improved social services. The
publication bluntly describes segregation in Chicago schools as "educational
apartheid"--a term taken up by Rev. Jesse Jackson [19].
Thus, the CTU is showing its commitment to organizing over such issues as
part of a wider working-class movement. For example, the CTU is backing a
revived effort to fight for an elected school board. [20]
In making this defense of public education, the CTU got little support from
even the traditional liberals on the Chicago City Council.
When Emanuel proposed his slash-and-burn budget, all 50 aldermen voted "yes"
[21] in a show of legislative fear and favor-seeking that would have made
Hosni Mubarak blush. Since then, a handful of aldermen and state legislators
have backed CTU on some issues, but if it comes to a strike, even the most
liberal figures among Chicago's Democratic Party are likely to demand that
the union back down. In fact, it was an alderman the CTU had endorsed [22]
who put forward a City Council resolution calling for early adoption of the
longer school day.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
WITH POLITICIANS lining up behind Emanuel, the CTU will have to expand its
growing ties with parents and community groups to build wider solidarity
efforts. However, building labor solidarity during a potential strike may
prove more complicated, both at the local and national levels. If there's
going to be a push to support the CTU, much of the initiative will have to
come from rank-and-file union members.
That's because two other unions with contracts with CPS--UNITE HERE Local 1
and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73--have already
settled contracts rather than bargain in parallel with the CTU. As a result,
members of those unions, including food service workers, custodians and
school aides, are contractually obligated to cross CTU picket lines in the
event of a strike.
Those separate deals were surprising to many Chicago labor activists, since
both unions have progressive reputations and had collaborated with the CTU.
CTU members had turned out to support UNITE HERE workers at brief strikes at
the city's Hyatt Hotels as part of a contract campaign last year.
But when CPS pulled back on plans to replace cooked meals with pre-plated
frozen ones [23], the president of UNITE HERE Local 1, Henry Tamarin, jumped
at the five-year deal offered by the city, rather than wait to negotiate
alongside the CTU.
The decision by SEIU Local 73 leaders to settle early with CPS was more
contentious. Local 73 President Christine Boardman sought to ensure that
ratification would go through at a membership meeting by withholding details
of the tentative agreement until the vote June 9.
Rank-and-file activists were angry both about the information blackout and
the fact that by settling separately from the CTU, they were undercutting the
teachers. Union leaders countered that job security clauses in the contract
warranted the early agreement. The final vote [24]: 163 to 108 for a contract
that covers more than 5,000 workers.
Besides peeling off these two locals from the CTU, Emanuel has also sought to
consolidate ties with the unions that are the mainstays of the Chicago
Federation of Labor (CFL).
In campaigning for mayor, Emanuel got the Teamsters' backing by promising to
make sure that privatized sanitation jobs would go to Teamster-organized
companies [25]. More recently, he got the unions' backing for the Chicago
Infrastructure Trust [26], a proposed $7 billion fund that will pay for
public works projects while putting city taxpayers on the hook to banks at
unspecified rates of interest [27].
City Hall will use jobs on upcoming infrastructure projects to try to buy the
loyalty of union leaders and keep them out of the CTU's camp. Notably,
Emanuel announced a series of projects to be funded by the trust at a
Laborers' apprentice school [28].
Ullico, the union-run insurance and finance company, was an early backer of
the infrastructure plan [29]. And when Emanuel named a union official to the
Infrastructure Trust's board, CFL President Jorge Ramirez declared, "It's
smart, and it's a call to collaboration that we've been looking for."
Collaboration with City Hall hasn't been on offer for the public-sector
unions that Emanuel has targeted for concessions, however.
Some have tried to avoid confrontation and simply taken the hit. Others, like
the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, have waged
a series of different protests around particular budget cuts--in the
libraries, for example [30].
Two unions stand out for their level of activism. One is Amalgamated Transit
Union (ATU) Local 241, which represents city bus drivers. Last fall, Local
241 allied with Occupy Chicago [31] to fight attacks on their union.
The other is National Nurses United/National Nurses Organizing Committee
(NNU), which represents nurses at Stroger Hospital, the main public health
care facility in Cook County, which has also allied with Occupy. When NNU
members volunteered to provide medical assistance to Occupy Chicago, Emanuel
made an example of them by having them arrested and jailed longer than other
activists [32]. Significantly, activists from the ATU, NNU and CTU unions
held a solidarity dinner to forge closer ties for the battles ahead.
Another key public-sector union notable for its activism is the Chicago
branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers, which has developed
ties with Occupy and labor activists in the fight against mass postal
facility closures and job losses. A key labor-community coalition, Stand Up
Chicago, initiated by the SEIU, has worked closely with the CTU and Occupy,
too--as has
Chicago Jobs with Justice [33], the longstanding coalition that's played a
pivotal role in local labor solidarity efforts. ARISE Chicago [34], a
religious coalition committed to workers' rights, will be key in reaching out
to churches.
All this sets the stage for labor solidarity efforts with the CTU. The
potential for such an effort was on display in January, when the Occupy
Chicago Labor Working Group hosted a "Workers' Power" labor solidarity
conference [35] that drew 250 leaders and rank-and-file activists from a
range of unions. It was already clear then that the CTU was heading toward a
collision with Emanuel, and support for the teachers' union was a major theme
of the event.
So it's clear that if Chicago's major union leaders are hesitant to take on
the mayor on behalf of the CTU, activists are prepared to take the initiative
themselves.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SOLIDARITY WILL also be needed from the CTU's parent union, the American
Federation of Teachers (AFT). Union President Randi Weingarten was on hand to
address the CTU's May 23 solidarity rally, and she backed the CTU's key
messages. "If the 1 percent can get the help, if all those with silver spoons
in their mouths can get help, what about the children of this city and the
people that teach them?" Weingarten said to wild cheers.
Yet the AFT leader also made it clear that she preferred partnership to
confrontation, noting that she'd come to the rally from Cincinnati where she
was attending the U.S. Department of Education Labor-Management Collaboration
conference [36]. At that meeting, Weingarten said, "there are over 100
districts talking about working together, and here in the second [sic] city
in the United States of America, we have to rally just to be heard."
In fact, the face-off in Chicago is an example of the failure of Weingarten's
strategy of collaboration. At the 2010 AFT convention in Seattle, Weingarten
brought out Microsoft Chair Bill Gates, who bankrolls a wide range of reform
efforts, as a guest speaker. The AFT, she said [37], must "lead and propose"
on school reform issues.
The prime example of school reform according to the AFT is the contract
settled in New Haven, Conn. [38] in 2010, which Weingarten called a "model or
a template" for future AFT collective bargaining agreements. That deal
sharply limits teachers' traditional job protections and gives administrators
more leeway to close schools.
For its part, the larger National Education Association (NEA), while formally
more critical of the school reform agenda, differs little in practice from
the AFT [39].
However, school reform groups have only taken the unions' willingness to
collaborate as a sign of weakness, as the notorious Edelman video about the
CTU shows.
For example, in Detroit--where the AFT's next convention will be held in
July--unelected school authorities are carrying out huge budget cuts,
sweeping school closures and a privatization agenda [40]. The Detroit
Federation of Teachers has seen its membership plummet, and the schools'
emergency financial manager imposed a 10 percent pay cut last year [41].
In Philadelphia,
authorities are going even further
, breaking up the public school system into "networks" to be run by nonprofit
groups, charter management organizations and universities, effectively
destroying the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers bargaining unit.
Weingarten's home local, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) in New York
City, is also on the defensive. The collaboration that once saw Weingarten
settle a contract with billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a Yankees game
[42] has given way to an all-out war on teachers. These days, Bloomberg is
trying to get rid of displaced teachers [43] still on the payroll, close
"underperforming" schools and unilaterally imposed a punitive evaluation
system that could lead to the firing of teachers after two years of
unsatisfactory ratings.
Public-sector strikes are illegal under New York state's anti-union Taylor
laws. When Weingarten ran the UFT, the union sent out mail ballots to
authorize a strike, but reached a deal before the votes were counted. These
days, Michael Mulgrew, the UFT's tough-talking president, won't even allow
delegates to bring discussion of a strike to the floor of the meeting, lest
the union run afoul of the law.
Despite her defensive approach, Weingarten did issue a statement [44]
supporting the CTU after its strike authorization vote was announced. "It
represents not just anger and frustration, but also a real commitment to
Chicago's students and a desire to be active participants in building strong
public schools that help all Chicago children thrive," she said. This
statement opens the way for organizing solidarity resolutions and financial
support from every AFT local in the country.
However, Weingarten subsequently made it clear that she's far more
comfortable in making deals with school districts and Democratic politicians
than confronting them--even when teachers take a hit.
When members of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) voted to accept the latest
in a series of concessions that cut pay in order to save jobs, Weingarten
issued another statement hailing their decision [45]. "This agreement
demonstrates how to address budget challenges without making the kinds of
cuts that hurt kids, silence the voices of teachers and other school staff,
and undermine our public schools," she said of UTLA, which is affiliated with
both the AFT and NEA.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
STILL, WHILE official support for the CTU from the labor movement may be
uneven, a groundswell of backing for teachers is evident across the city.
A recent poll in the /Chicago Tribune/ [46] showed that more than twice as
many more people trusted the CTU on school issues than Emanuel. The task now
is to turn that favorable sentiment into active support.
"Everyone's been talking about the teachers at work," said Don
Schraffenberger, a member of Teamsters Local 705, who works at the huge UPS
facility just outside Chicago. Frustrated by their own union's slowness in
dealing with workplace safety issues, the workers were excited by the CTU's
high-profile rally and strike vote, he said. "They are seeing a union that's
actually fighting back," Schraffenberger said. "I think they see it the way
people saw the 1997 Teamsters strike at UPS."
For unions, steps to back the CTU can start with resolutions of support,
pledges of financial assistance, and commitments to walk picket lines. In
Chicago, CTU members are available to speak at union meetings, and could call
or Skype into meetings elsewhere.
Such labor backing for the CTU has far more than symbolic importance. In the
event of a strike, it's possible or even likely that a judge would issue a
temporary restraining order, sending teachers back to work and threatening
them with fines and jail time if they don't. That's what happened when the
UTLA planned a one-day strike in 2009 [47] and when bus and subway workers in
New York City's Transport Workers Union Local 100 struck for three days [48]
in 2005. If the CTU's assets are seized or heavy fines are imposed, union
members and supporters everywhere must be prepared to send funds to keep the
union operational and defend teachers' right to strike.
At the same time, parent and community groups aligned with the CTU have a
critical role to play--not only by offering political support to the
teachers, but by being prepared to operate freedom schools that give students
a safe place to go during a strike. Such efforts were key to successful CTU
strikes in the past and will be critical in countering teacher-bashing from
Emanuel and a network of paid preachers and "community groups" [49] that are
really appendages of the local Democratic machine.
But where Emanuel will try to line up his forces by spreading money around,
the CTU and its allies can count on organizations and individuals who are
prepared to do the one-on-one organizing that's needed, from leafleting in
neighborhoods and summer festivals to visiting churches and community groups.
Such organizing efforts are already well underway among CTU members and their
allies. The union will use the teachers' summer break to send them into the
communities to organize, as well as gear up union operations for an all-out
fight.
For their part, supporters of the teachers aim to have connections in every
neighborhood in the city, with activists prepared to answer City Hall's lies
and distortions with a clear and principled defense of public education
against the budget-cutters, business elites and charter school operators.
The battle lines over public education are being drawn in Chicago. But it's a
fight with nationwide implications--and everyone who supports fully funded
public education and teachers' rights should stand with the Chicago Teachers
Union.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
What you can do
For updates on the Chicago teachers' strike throughout the day, go to the
SocialistWorker.org Facebook page [50].
Other important sources of information include the Chicago Teachers Union
website [51] and the CTU Twitter feed [52]. Also check out the Chicago
Teachers Solidarity Campaign Facebook page [53].
The teachers need your financial support--please consider making a donation
to the CTU Solidarity Fund [54].
If you are in Chicago, picketing will take place at schools in the morning,
starting at 6:30 a.m. On Tuesday, the union is calling for a mass rally
downtown at Daley Plaza, across from City Hall, at 2:30 p.m.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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[41] http://michiganradio.org/post/emergency-manager-imposing-10-wage-cut-detroit-teachers
[42] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/14/nyregion/14teach.html?pagewanted=print&position=
[43] http://socialistworker.org//www.nytimes.com/2012/05/18/nyregion/new-york-city-to-offer-buyouts-to-idled-teachers.html
[44] http://www.aft.org/newspubs/press/2012/061112.cfm
[45] http://www.aft.org/newspubs/press/2012/061812.cfm
[46] http://socialistworker.org//articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-05-15/news/ct-met-rahm-school-poll0516-20120516_1_school-day-chicago-teachers-union-wgn-tv-poll
[47] http://socialistworker.org/2009/05/14/judge-bars-la-teachers-strike
[48] http://socialistworker.org/2006-1/586/586_15_NYCTransit.shtml
[49] http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-02-13/news/ct-met-emanuel-consulting-firm-20120213_1_education-agenda-consulting-firm-mayor-rahm-emanuel
[50] http://www.facebook.com/SocialistWorker
[51] http://www.ctunet.com/
[52] https://twitter.com/ctulocal1
[53] http://www.facebook.com/ChicagoTeachersSolidarity
[54] https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4013/c/468/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=7204
