Chicago teachers set strike date
2016Mark Ugolini 2016-10Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 4 →
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A major issue is the mayor’s determination to make teachers pay for their pension. What Emanuel is push CHICAGO—On Sept. 28, the Chicago Teachers Union ing for would result in a decrease in teachers’ take-home (CTU) House of Delegates announced plans to strike on pay. His primary target is the city’s 7 percent contribu Oct. 11. Negotiations with Chicago Public Schools on a tion to the teacher pension fund. Since teachers don’t re new contract have made little progress since they began ceive social security benefits, the pension is key to their over 22 months ago. The union has been without a con As expected, the capitalist-controlled media are lining Over 90 percent of the union’s 25,000 teachers partici up behind the mayor and Illinois Republican Governor pated in a strike authorization vote conducted Sept. 21- Bruce Rauner, who have been claiming for months that 23. Over 95 percent voted in favor of a strike, a percent state and local governments are “broke.” The mayor and age easily surpassing the legal requirement that at least governor for months have been preparing a coordinated assault on the teachers, part of a generalized auster The Oct. 11 strike date gives the Chicago Board of Edu ity offensive especially targeting unions throughout cation the 10-day notice required by law. Until then, the state. One storyline being played out in the media is negotiations will continue. “If we cannot reach the that the “selfish” teachers are only concerned with their agreement by then, we will withhold our labor,” said pensions, are generally overpaid, and don’t work hard CTU President Karen Lewis at a press conference fol lowing the CTU House of Delegates meeting. “It’s time to The Chicago Tribune ran an editorial that claimed that move this along.” This would be the third strike of pub the 95.6 percent strike authorization vote was illegiti lic school teachers since Democratic Party Mayor Rahm mate and undemocratic since the union utilized a pe tition process, and not a “secret ballot—which would According to the CTU blog site: “This should come as permit dissent.” The Tribune compared the CTU voting no surprise to the Board, the mayor or parents because process to “North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un [who] educators have been angry about the school-based cuts notched an even more convincing victory—100 per that have hurt special education students, reduced li cent—to confirm his leadership in the Supreme People’s brarians, counselors, social workers and teachers’ aides, Assembly” and former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who “swept to victory with 99.96 percent of votes cast. tract since June 30, 2015.
75 percent approve strike action.
Emanuel took office in 2011.
and eliminated thousands of teaching positions.” compensation because it’s all they have to retire on. enough. All are lies that fly in the face of the facts.
governments. profits each year. demand a formal vote on unionizing. The 14,000 sign-ups exceed the 30 per cent threshold that federal regulators say must trigger an official vote, the union says.”
• Farmworkers Victory — Labor Notes reports, “After three years of tireless or ganizing, 500 farmworkers at Sakuma Brothers Farms in Washington State have finally won union recognition. The berry pickers, mainly indigenous mi grants from Mexico, began their fight with a work stoppage in 2013 and nev er let up. They formed an independent union, Familias Unidas por la Justicia, and launched boycotts against Sakuma and its major client, multinational ber ry distributor Driscoll’s, calling for the farm to recognize the union and nego tiate. This year the boycott went inter national, as the Washington workers joined in solidarity with berry pickers in San Quintín, Mexico, who have led massive strikes for higher wages and benefits and against sexual harassment on the job.… “Sakuma agreed to an election and on September 12, workers voted yes by an overwhelming 77 percent. It’s a rare win for an independent local farm worker union.”
• Academics Unite—Workday Min nesota reported, “The effort to form a faculty union at the University of Min nesota moved forward Tuesday with a ruling by the state Bureau of Media tion Services affirming that 1,500 ten ure-track and 1,000 contingent faculty should be in one bargaining unit. Sup porters of MN Academics United, an affiliate of Service Employees Interna This year, consolidations have continued predominantly Black, are the hardest hit. tional Union Local 284, had sought to keep the groups together. The move sets the stage for a union election later this fall, organizers said. No date has been set yet.” n Ann Montague and Michael Schreiber contributed to this Labor Briefing. If you have a labor story appropriate for this column please contact billonasch@kcla bor.org.
... Mineworkers (continued from page 2: “New wave of racist cop killings sparks outrage”)
said Jeff Mackler, Socialist Action presidential candidate. “It’s part of the generalized global crisis of capitalism—making the working class pay more and more in every way to satisfy the ruling class’s insatiable drive for profits.
“Both capitalist parties, the Democrats and Republicans, are in lock-step agreement on the goal of maximizing profits for corporations at the expense of the working class. Workers need our own party, a Labor Party,.
“We support pensions for all at top union wages, and for closing down the profit-gouging insur ance industry to establish a uni versal and free national health system that meets the medi cal needs of all ‘from cradle to grave.’” n