In what is shaping up as an historic battle, 29,000 Chicago
public school teachers and staff represented by the Chicago Teachers Union
(CTU) struck the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) today. This is the first strike
by CTU in 25 years, and it is the most significant attempt by an American union
to confront and fight back against the assault on public education and, indeed,
the overall austerity attacks against public sector unions, jobs, and essential
services.
For years, public education in Chicago has been battered by
a coordinated assault, orchestrated by the same corporate forces that broke the
New Orleans teachers union and effectively privatized New Orleans schools (now
80% charter schools); that is laying waste to the Detroit Public Schools (now
40% charter schools, with class size in some public high schools exceeding 60
students); which three months ago closed 40 schools in Philadelphia; and on and
on. Arne Duncan, Obama’s education
secretary, was formerly CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, and in that capacity
he promoted the proliferation of high stakes standardized tests, “turnaround
schools” (effectively, firing a school’s teachers and scattering the staff),
cuts to electives and programs, and gross outsourcing of services to
high-priced consultants and other private contractors. This program is not just
the pet project of billionaires like Eli Broad, Bill Gates, and the Walton
(Wal-Mart) family – although for sure they push it heavily. But it is more than
that: it is part of the overall attempt to take back from the working class
gains it won through bitter struggle over the past 150 years, to commodify or
recommodify everything in the public sector that can be commodified. They have
been trying to solve their crisis off the backs of working people and
unemployed people.
The Chicago teachers’ strike is a massive show of defiance
and opposition to these attacks. By
late afternoon today, more than 50,000 Chicagoans had converged on CPS
headquarters in a monumental show of teacher/community solidarity. Most wore
“CTU Red”. To counter the lies and
distortions put out by Chicago Mayor (and former Obama White House chief of
staff) Rahm Emmanuel and broadcast by the mass media, CTU put out a statement
titled Why We Strike.
Here is their statement in full:
Mayor Emanuel Continues to Insult Public
School Educators; This is not a “Strike of Choice.”
Why The Chicago Teachers And School Personnel
Have Called A Strike:
Teachers already accepted a much longer
day—and now are not being treated with respect. We are on strike for a fair
contract that includes the following:
· Pay Fairness.
The parties are not far apart on overall
compensation, CTU seeks a fairer distribution of pay and to preserve the
schedule for career advancement established 45 years ago in the Union’s first
labor contract.
· Protect our benefits.
Maintain our existing benefits and sick days
without increasing the contribution rate.
· Fair Evaluation Procedure.
After the initial phase-in period, CPS’s
proposed evaluation procedures could result in 6,000 teachers, or nearly a
third of all CPS teachers, facing discharge within one or two years. It places
too much emphasis on standardized test scores, which diminishes children’s
education and punishes teachers unfairly.
· Teacher Training.
CPS is imposing a new curriculum at all
schools and a strict, stringent evaluation system. Teachers have asked for more
training, but CPS proposes no increase, or in some cases decreased, teacher
training.
· Timetable for air
conditioning.
Teachers insist that CPS agree to a reasonable
timetable to install air conditioning in student classrooms. In July and
August, students sit in sweltering 98-degree heat, and many classrooms also
need air conditioning.
Other issues of importance:
CPS-sponsored legislation bars teachers from
striking over certain issues, but we nonetheless expect to include the
following in our next labor contract:
· Fair recall procedure for
laid off teachers.
This summer, CTU agreed to the Mayor’s longer
school day, and the agreement included a fair recall procedure for laid off
teachers. The new labor contract must include a fair recall procedure.
· Fair compensation for a
longer school year.
If teachers are expected to work a longer
school year, they should be fairly compensated for the extra work. Neutral Fact
Finder Edwin Benn ruled that teachers should be paid for their extra work.
The union is not on strike over matters
governed exclusively by IELRA Section 4.5 and 12(b).
The Chicago Teachers Union represents 30,000
teachers and educational support personnel working in the Chicago Public
Schools, and by extension, the more than 400,000 students and families they
serve. The CTU is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the
Illinois Federation of Teachers and is the third largest teachers local in the
United States and the largest local union in Illinois. For more information
please visit CTU’s website at www.ctunet.com .
Everyone, everywhere: organize solidarity meetings, rallies
and marches. Send messages of support. Send the message to Rahm Emmanuel, Barack Obama, and the rest
of the Democratic and Republican politicians who in one way or another promote
the corporate austerity attacks: we are fighting back. CTU’s fight is our fight. We face the
same conditions. They are leading the way forward.
If you live in the greater Oakland area, there will be a CTU solidarity organizing meeting tomorrow (Tuesday, 9/11) at 4:30pm at:
Oakland Education Association
272 East 12th Street (2nd floor)
Oakland, CA
Also tomorrow: an already scheduled rally to protest harsh cuts at City College San Francisco and other California community colleges is adding the second focus of solidarity with the Chicago teachers strike. That will be tomorrow (Tuesday, 9/11) at 6pm at:
CCSF Chinatown Campus
682 Washington
San Francisco
For more information, check
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