Chicago Teachers Union considers strike
2016Mark Ugolini 2016-06Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 4 →
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4 SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 2016 Although a 30-day “cooling-off period” is now expired, and a teachers strike is allowed per state law, the May 4 Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) House of Delegates meeting did not set a strike date. The del egates discussed a new aspect of their campaign to press Chicago’s City Council and Mayor to provide funding necessary to operate public schools.
The CTU also announced that if Demo cratic Party Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s ap pointed school board decides to unilater ally cancel a 7 percent pension benefit, as school board officials threatened last February, an emergency House of Del egates meeting would be called to pro vide the required 10-day notice and set a strike date.
The CTU membership has already au thorized a strike. If one is called, the union will decide whether the strike will occur before the end of the current school year (June 21), or at the start of the fall term in September.
CTU has been without a contract since June 30, 2015, when the contract reached after the seven-day strike of September 2012 expired. Talks between Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and CTU have been ongoing for the past 18 months.
On April 16, a fact finder, Steven Bierig, recommended that the parties reconsid er an old CPS contract offer that had al ready been unanimously rejected by the CTU bargaining team. On the same day the CTU formally rejected the proposal, making it a “dead letter” and thus starting a 30-day countdown to a possible strike.
The House of Delegates gave union of ficers authority to immediately reject the fact-finding report if its conclusions offered “no substantial breakthrough in terms of class-size limits, reasonable economics, or the closure of devastating loopholes.”
A CTU press release explains: “The previously-rejected contract proposal made by CPS on January 29 would result in teachers taking home less in earnings at the end of the proposed four-year con tract than they earn today.” The proposal would also phase out over two years a 7 percent CPS pension contribution, and limit salary “steps and lanes” increases. Both of these have been features of teach er contracts over many years, and remain key issues for the teachers.
Prior to the May 4 House of Delegates meeting, the CTU released details of a $502 million CPS “revenue recovery package,” calling on Emanuel and the city council to act on its recommendations.
“We have identified half a billion dol lars that can triage the bleeding at CPS,” said CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey. “We are asking the mayor and aldermen to implement what we believe is a solid package of financial emergency supports to ensure our district does not go belly up … our revenue recovery package is neces sary right now to stave off mass layoffs, school closings and more furloughs that will wreak havoc on our students and classrooms. Over the next few weeks we’ll be lobbying every city council mem ber to support this plan.”
In a CTU press release the union pro poses the state government enact a pro gressive tax structure, a Millionaire’s Tax, and a financial transaction tax. Locally, the union proposes that the mayor and city council “consider a number of local revenue options, which the City of Chi cago city council could approve.”
This $502 million package would rein state a Corporate Employer “Head Tax”; and initiate a Personal Property Lease Tax, a Ride Sharing Tax on services like UBER and LYFT, a Hotel Accommodations Tax, a Vehicle Fuel Tax, and a Commercial Property Tax Assessment.
It would also allocate surplus funds from Tax Increment Financing (TIF) ac counts. TIF financing is a tool used by the city of Chicago to promote business investment. Currently, TIF accounts, funded from local property taxes, have an estimated surplus of up to $350 million.
The attack on the CTU is clearly part of a broader, statewide bipartisan assault on union rights, public education, and so cial services. The CTU is in the crosshairs of both a Republican governor’s “Turn around Agenda” and a Democratic Party mayor’s drive to privatize schools and se riously weaken unions.
The April 1 Day of Action and one-Day CTU strike was a powerful expression of solidarity of Chicago teachers and their supporters around the city and throughout the county. More than 50 unions, community groups, and student organizations participated in the day of protests, and nearly 20,000 teachers and supporters took to the streets in a late-af ternoon mass demonstration to stand up for teachers and defend all those targeted by this statewide, bipartisan austerity of fensive.
The path forward involves building on this success, deepening solidarity among (continued on page 11, in “Offshore tax shelters get surge of cash”)
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