USA : Chicago Teachers Union tallies strike authorization votes
The Chicago Teachers Union is tallying up the results of its latest strike authorization vote ahead of what could be a pivotal week in the long-running labor dispute with Chicago Public
Teachers spent three days last week signing petitions at schools throughout the city. If 75 percent or more put their names in the "yes" column, the union's leadership will have the power to set a strike date. Such a date could be revealed as early as a Wednesday meeting of the CTU's House of Delegates.
But even if the union sets a strike date, that doesn't necessarily mean teachers will walk out. Negotiations on a new contract continue. A walkout could not occur until at least 10 days after a date is set. The strike date also could be set further down the road. And the union could opt not to strike if negotiations show progress by the time the date arrives.
"I fully expect that by (this) week we'll have successfully authorized a strike, and then it will be up to the delegates to talk about where that leaves us and what makes sense for a deadline," CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey said late last week. "We're looking to move this toward a conclusion.
"All of our options are on the table, including a strike deadline," Sharkey said. He declined to say when the union would make an announcement about the strike vote outcome during a photo opportunity late Friday afternoon featuring union members counting votes.
Rather than carry out the strike vote with secret ballots, union members had to indicate whether they supported a strike by signing their name in the appropriate spot on a petition that was passed around to other union members, then delivered to union headquarters.
In a recent interview, union leaders told the Tribune that a combination of dueling ideologies and limited money is at the heart of negotiations. At the same time, union President Karen Lewis cast Mayor Rahm Emanuel's influence as "extraordinarily important" to averting a walkout.
After brawling over teacher evaluations, testing and a longer school day during talks that resulted in the union's 2012 strike and now-expired contract, public battles this time have centered more on money said to be in short supply at school headquarters.
Lewis, who appeared close to reaching a deal with the school district this winter before members shot it down, downplayed her role in the negotiations. The union's members, she said, "are the real bosses."
"I don't feel like the CEO of CTU," she said. "We do a lot of shared decision-making, which I think most people don't understand because they think it's just Karen sitting around."
That dynamic, she acknowledged, makes it harder to settle a contract.
"But here's the deal — and this is the truth, period, the end — I don't have to work under this contract. They do," Lewis said of the union's members. "So it seems like, to me, that the people that have to work under the contract should have the most ability to say yes or no to things."
Union leaders say they're still looking for Emanuel to throw his weight behind getting more money for CPS. Emanuel has pushed a series of tax hikes through the City Council, including a new property tax to bring in $250 million for the underfunded teacher pension system.
So far, the CTU is shrugging off the potential risk of a strike playing to the union's political enemies, especially Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
"I'm saying the thing about strikes is that they put pressure, playbook political pressure, to come up with solutions on how to fund the schools," Sharkey said. "It has a way of clarifying people's minds, doesn't it?"
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