Chicago Teachers Strike? Union Leader Karen Lewis Says Odds Are 'Very High'

Any teacher will tell you how precious summer is, a brief window of relaxation after the grueling academic year. But this summer hasn't been the most pleasant for Chicago teachers.

First, the state legislature passed a law cutting into teachers' abilities to negotiate their contracts, modifying tenure and opening the door for a longer school day and year with no guarantees of additional pay. Then, new Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard revoked their scheduled four-percent pay raises for next year.

Now, Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis is suggesting that teachers might bite back.

In a radio interview that aired on Sunday, Lewis said that teachers may move to go on strike in the coming year. In fact, she described the likelihood of a strike vote as "very high."

“People are very upset. People feel disrespected," Lewis said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “We have teachers who have been extremely vilified for political purposes."

She backed off the comments at the South Side's Bud Billiken parade later Sunday, a festival that encourages students to head back to school. "That is not what that was about at all," WGN quoted her as saying. "What I would like to do is focus on what our real issues are, which is finding funding to close these crazy budget gaps."

If a strike were to go through, it would be the first since 1987. That four-week work stoppage ended with concessions from the school board, including a pay raise and smaller class sizes.

But SB7, the major state schools law that passed earlier this year, could keep that from happening this time around. One provision in the bill requires 75 percent of CTU members to agree in order to successfully go on strike. Jonah Edelman, head of the school-policy organization Stand for Children that lobbied hard for SB7, would later gloat that he had outsmarted the CTU on that point. Based on their research, no strike had ever passed with more than 50 percent of union members participating.

CTU "took that deal, misunderstanding, probably not knowing the statistics about voting history," Edelman said in a later analysis of how the bill came about. "And we insisted that we decide all the fine print about the process - she (Karen Lewis) was happy to let us do that."

A CTU spokeswoman later said that wasn't true. "We would not have agreed with this if we did not believe that we had a viable option in collective bargaining," the spokeswoman said to education blog Catalyst Chicago.

If Lewis's remarks are any indication, that threshold may well be put to the test before long.

Comments

[Hopeezinetoday Autismmom]

12:41 AM on 08/20/2011

Thank God literally we are out of CPS! SOme of these teacher should flat be OUT OF A JOB period. They lie and use the system to push kids through. Since moving I have really taken note how messed up CPS is. Watch for our story on hope magazine online

[gmaily]

01:06 PM on 08/18/2011

Greetings and respect

I ask you to help me to work in America for example, your city
I have experience in teaching Arabic language 32 years old
I speak also English and French
My nationality Moroccan ...

E-mail address:[e-mail]
Call: 00212671683972

[homeroid2]

07:41 AM on 08/18/2011

The Mayor and alderman do not use public schools for their children so what's the difference to strike or not?

[nicothebaker]

12:36 AM on 08/18/2011

These union bosses always seem well.............fed.

[nicothebaker]

12:25 AM on 08/18/2011

I thought teachers love to teach. Somebody call up Matt Damon.

[Hopeezinetoday Autismmom]

12:52 AM on 08/20/2011

or Ron Clark!

[Greg34]

01:08 PM on 08/17/2011

If they strike fire them all most of them are crap anyway

[qb5]

02:35 PM on 08/17/2011

And your proof is what tough guy. You would last 10 min. in a chicago classroom. You would be in a little ball in the corner crying like a little girl.

[Greg34]

02:56 PM on 08/17/2011

I doubt it union worker are just loudmouth, push come to shove they are little sissies with no bite.

[Greg34]

01:07 PM on 08/17/2011

The Chicago teachers are in for a rude awakening if they strike. The public will not be on there side. And the pay raise was supposed to happen if the money was there. It is not, so what is there problem. Put students first and someone punch this union in the mouth

[qb5]

02:41 PM on 08/17/2011

Bla Bla Bla unions are bad. Try using facts to support your statement until then SHUT UP!

[Dionsmusica]

01:51 PM on 08/16/2011

I find this article especially interesting since I am a teacher who left Chicago in the midst of layoffs right after my graduation. I think it's nothing short of a damn shame what the teachers in Chicago have had to endure over the last few years. Having done much of my observing and my student teaching in CPS (as well as having attended several CPS schools including Morgan Park High School), I'm very familiar with all of the issues those teachers face. I hate to say it, but CPS is a broken school system. These issues over contractual obligations and resources are just the tip of an enormous iceberg of problems. What i hate most of all is that the CTU doesn't make many of these issues more high profile, and bring them to light. We could start with the wasteful spending of the area offices, and the exorbitant pay of the CEO and his staff. "Jean-Claude Brizard, has a starting salary $20,000 higher than that of his predecessor..." (Source: http://www.examiner.com/democrat-in-chicago/cps-ceo-brizard-starts-with-a-raise-cash-strapped-chicago). We can't pay the teachers their contractually agreed upon raise, but we can give the CEO and his staff hefty pay increases? I think CTU should strike. Perhaps that will help to shed light on the issues which make CPS an under performing school district, and it's not for lack of desire or competence by many of the dedicated teachers.

[hyader]

09:00 AM on 08/16/2011

Chicago teachers spend less time per day and per year in the classroom than any of their counterparts in the suburbs and other cities
Chicago teachers are paid more than most of their counterparts
Chicago teachers , themselves, are the poorest performing per THEIR testing
Chicago STUDENTS perform at the lowest level compared to the rest of Illinois and their counterparts in other large cities..

The Chicago Teacher's Union has "proudly and arrogantly " spewed , they are NOT ABOUT THE CHILDREN

[Melssa]

10:57 AM on 08/16/2011

Post where you can find this data.

[djo2013]

03:37 PM on 08/16/2011

I respectfully also ask for links and proof of your statements.

[Melssa]

04:30 AM on 08/16/2011

In other countries, the teachers are not expected to do so much, and what they do is IMMENSELY appreciated. If a student in the USA misbehaves and you keep them in at recess, you have parents storming into the classroom, kid in tow, to berate you for punishing their perfect little Johnny...or they completely ignore the issue. In other countries, parents make their children take responsibility for their behavior and personally visit to apologize to the teacher for the bad behavior. When they bring their children, they say things like -" How DARE you disrespect your teacher! Your teacher is a very smart, successful person and is trying to teach you to be one as well. If you become a successful person it will be because of what you learn in school!"

Please believe that while some of you disparage teachers and their unions who try to protect them, the rest of the world is staring in shock and amazement at treatment of a profession which is one of the most highly appreciated and respected in society. America is turning into a place that the rest of the world views as full of arrogant, selfish people who spit on those who took the time to mold them into proper citizens. Anyone who does not support teachers and disparages them for the tireless and unceasing work they do for THEIR CHILDREN is disgustingly wrong, wrong, WRONG.

[Greg34]

01:08 PM on 08/17/2011

Go screw yourself you lazy teacherm you should be fired.

[Melssa]

04:30 AM on 08/16/2011

Teachers are human and not infallible, but are expected to be perfect. They come out of university full of passion and love for their profession, but this is beaten out of them due to the long hours, lack of freedom to run their classrooms in a way that would benefit their students more, constant complaints from parents who want special treatment for their children, and pay which is often not enough to live in the districts they are teaching in. Simply put, too much is expected out of teachers and there is simply not enough time to be an educator, mentor, psuedo-parent, counselor, and coach all at once, for 30 students who are extremely different and who have special needs, may be gifted, challenged with the language, display behavioral issues, or have a heart-breaking home life. Personally, I spent 10-15 hours a day, mostly averaging about 12 hours a day in the classroom almost every day, teaching, grading, decorating, planning, coaching, and cleaning. My nights and weekends as well as my vacations were used up in this manner too. Teachers aren't at home hanging out during their xmas break - they are at the school preparing their classrooms, or purchasing new materials, or looking up ways they can breathe new life into a subject, or looking for funding or contests or any number of things to benefit the students. They often tutor, teach summer school, coach or head clubs during their vacations.

[Hopeezinetoday Autismmom]

12:50 AM on 08/20/2011

PEfrect? That would take WAY to long to achieve - how bout just really doing their jobs. MElssa you CHOSE the profession CPS didn't get this way yesterday its been like this for 30 years. So nless you started working int he 50s 60s or maybe early 70s but back in 1980 salraies were 11,000 which is why I went into something else.
Our experience with CPS is that teachers lie flat out, refuse to follow special education laws, look the other way when it comes to bullying ( why was it the LAST P/T conference that a teacher finally stepped up and said something? - Because he was leaving! CPS is bringing Chicago DOWN - and taking the students with them. I am so thoroughly disgusted with CPS I can't even begin to tell you. Sympathy for teachers NADA ZIPPO ZILCH NOTHING - they get absolutely NONE from me! Quit if the job is too hard. Nothing will ever get me to see things differently.

[Melssa]

04:29 AM on 08/16/2011

I am always angry whenever I read the opinions of the general populace regarding teachers. I am a teacher myself, teaching in the Middle East, and have spent some time abroad in different school systems. There is one, and only ONE reason that education is not competitive with that of the rest of the world. That reason is the lack of respect and appreciation for teachers. As a rule, teachers tend to work more than the average person with a similar education - however they are not paid as much as the average professional with the same amount of education. I have a masters in education and would love to get a second masters degree, but this profession penalizes teachers who are highly educated because once they become more expensive, administrators do not want to hire them. The same goes for the very experienced and successful teachers. If you were having issues with your home and called a plumber or electrician, you would never presume to lecture these professionals about how to do their job, and you would never assume you know more than they do - that is what parents do to teachers ALL the time. Parents often have ZERO experience in education, the administrators and officials in charge of educational policy often have ZERO experience in education, and both of these bodies work to disparage and blame the teachers for any mistake.

[jsalspach]

04:22 AM on 08/16/2011

I understand their anxiety but honestly is this the way to do it? I don't belong to a union but I am not against them. My company has eliminated all raises this year and implemented several other cost saving measures. I work in health care and since Arizona has dratically cut their Medicaid program my company is taking a big cut also. These cost cutting measures also means that no one will be losing their job. Right now having a job that pays a living wage is something not to be taken for granted.
No one where I work is complaining about what we needed to do to keep our jobs. Maybe some folks should just be glad they have a job when so many don't.

[nypoet22]

04:41 AM on 08/16/2011

that's a good point, in hard times everyone needs to sacrifice. i think the issue with teachers across the country is more about a lack of respect than division of resources. if that money were going to preserve and improve children's education it would be one thing, but that's not where it's going. there are some very powerful people trying to privatize public education and turn it into a for-profit enterprise through charters, vouchers and extensive standardized tests. meanwhile, wal-mart, wall street and warren buffett get tax cuts.

in short, cuts in teacher pay, health care and benefits aren't going to the students. that's my beef.

[Melssa]

05:11 AM on 08/16/2011

It has been stated over and over again that the teachers would give up their raises if they could be assured that there would be fewer layoffs. Again and again, there was a refusal to assure this fact because they had already decided to lay the teachers off regardless. The Union refused to give up the raises because of this - they were taken away anyway. While everyone screams for teachers to give up their pay while demanding that they work even longer hours, administrators are giving themselves fat raises. Why aren't THEY sacrificing?

[navigio]

09:58 AM on 08/16/2011

yes, this is an important point. unfortunately public funding is a shell game. its like the governor in wisconsin who signed a $137M tax cut when he entered office then a week later said there was a $140M budget shortfall that public sector workers needed to absorb via layoffs and benefit reductions. So its not really about the issue in question, more often about political priority.

[bmcombs]

09:43 AM on 08/16/2011

For me it is an issue of a contract. The Teacher's Union and CPS entered into a contractual agreement for those raises. From a legal perspective I'm not entirely sure how CPS can back out. If I were the Union I would have CPS in a court for breach of contract - I haven't heard if such a step has been taken.

I agree with the Melssa that the Union has been willing to give up their contractually obligated raise for other things - but CPS refuses to negotiate on those. Sad.

[Ariel Bonzai]

09:47 PM on 08/15/2011

He fact that CTU is under so much fire makes me think it is one of the few teacher's unions that is actually devoted to the right things. In theory a union is an inspired idea, but in practice it just adds to our burdens. What needs to happen requires vast revision of federal laws, which operate for the benefit of big business rather than for the people. As the people, we have an obligation to use our power. Chi town teachers need to drop everything and vote to prove these smug $&@€£% wrong.

[Andy Osinski]

09:46 PM on 08/15/2011

CPS is under the control of the Mayor of Chicago, one Rahm Israel Emanuel.
I wonder how he's going to handle this problem.