Obama Admin. & Rahm Emanuel On The Bad Side Of Teachers Union

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Still "Meh"? I don't know what your definition of "Meh" is, but this doesn't look like "Meh" to me:

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Chicago teachers extend strike, mayor seeks injunction

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The confrontation between Chicago teachers and Mayor Rahm Emanuel escalated on Sunday when their union extended a strike and the mayor said he would go to court to block the walkout, risking more friction within President Barack Obama's political coalition as the November 6 election nears.

There will be no classes in Chicago public schools for a sixth day on Monday, and probably a seventh on Tuesday, affecting 350,000 kindergarten, elementary and high school students.
The showdown left in doubt a deal on wages, benefits and education reforms for 29,000 unionized teachers that negotiators had hoped would end the biggest labor dispute in the United States in a year.
It also could widen a rift within the Democratic Party between education reformers such as Obama's former top White House aide Emanuel, and organized labor which the Democrats need to get out the vote in the election.

Chicago union President Karen Lewis said some 800 union delegates met on Sunday and decided to consult with rank-and-file members before voting whether to end the walkout.
"There's no trust (of the school district and mayor)," Lewis said. "So you have a population of people who are frightened of never being able to work for no fault of their own."
Union delegates will reconvene on Tuesday to discuss the feedback from rank-and-file members, Lewis said. Parents should plan for their children to be out of school until at least Wednesday, she said.
No formal vote of delegates was taken, but they were asked to stand up so that the union leadership could get a sense of how many were for and against ending the strike, delegates said.
"A clear majority wanted to stay out. That's why we are staying out," Lewis told a news conference after a three-hour meeting of the delegates.

MAYOR CALLS STRIKE ILLEGAL

Emanuel called the strike "illegal" and said he would go to court to seek an injunction to block the labor action.

"I will not stand by while the children of Chicago are played as pawns in an internal dispute within a union," Emanuel said, adding that the union walked out over issues that are not subject to a strike under Illinois state law.

Teachers revolted last week against sweeping education reforms sought by Emanuel, especially evaluating teachers based on the standardized test scores of their students. They also fear a wave of neighborhood school closings that could result in mass teacher layoffs. They want a guarantee that laid-off teachers will be recalled for other jobs in the district.

"They're still not happy with the evaluations. They're not happy with the recall (provision)," Lewis said of delegates.

Before the meeting of delegates on Sunday, Lewis had called the agreement a "good contract." But after the decision to extend the strike she backtracked, saying: "This is not a good deal. This is the deal we got."
Emanuel's chief negotiator, School Board President David Vitale, said the union should allow children to go back to school while the two sides complete the process.

"We are extremely disappointed that after 10 months of discussion reaching an honest and fair compromise that (the union) decided to continue their strike of choice and keep our children out of the classroom," Vitale said.
During the first week of the strike, opinion polls showed parents and Chicago voters backing the union, with some parents and students joining boisterous rallies. A key question is who the public will support now that the strike is dragging on.

Former Chicago city council member Dick Simpson said Emanuel may have made a mistake by going to court to block the strike.
"If I were advising the mayor, I would have advised him to be patient for a couple of days," said Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. By waiting, Emanuel could have put the onus on the teachers if they rejected the contract later this week, Simpson said.

Both sides appeared to win some concessions, according to details of the tentative agreement released by the parties.

Emanuel compromised on the design of the first update of the evaluation system for Chicago teachersin 40 years. He agreed to phase in the new plan over several years and reduced the weighting of standardized test results in reviewing teachers.

Teachers won some job-security protections and prevented the introduction of merit pay in their contract.
NATIONAL DEBATE

The Chicago strike has shone a bright light on a fierce national debate over how to reform failing inner-city schools. The union believes that more money and resources should be given to neighborhood public schools to help them improve.

Emanuel and a legion of financiers and philanthropists believe that failing schools should be closed and reopened with new staff to give the students the best chance of improving.
In Chicago, more than 80 neighborhood schools have been closed in the last decade as the enrollment has declined by about 20 percent. The Chicago Tribune reported last week that another 120 of about 600 city public schools could be closed.

At the same time, 96 so-called charter schools have been opened. Charters are publicly funded but non-union and not subject to some public school rules and regulations. Their record of improving student academic performance is mixed.

Lewis and the union argue that charters are undermining public education.

The agreement calls for a 3 percent pay raise for teachers this year and 2 percent in each of the next two years. If the agreement is extended for an optional fourth year, teachers get a 3 percent increase. The increases will result in an average 17.6 increase over four years, the district said. Chicago union teachers make an average of about $76,000 annually.

The deal could worsen the Chicago Public Schools financial crisis. Emanuel said the contract will cost $295 million over four years, or $74 million per year.

Debt rating agencies had previously warned that the new agreement with teachers could bust the school district budget and lead to a downgrade of its credit rating.

http://news.yahoo.com/chicago-mayor-seek-injunction-end-teachers-strike-005611892--finance.html

 

So, who sides with Rahm Emanuel and who sides with the union?

 

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So the Chicago idiots can't keep the union idiots in line? What is wrong with the dimocRAT party these days?

 

This in no way effects Obama's stance with union leaders or their members. He may be about reform within the unions, but unlike Romney, he isn't outright against them. Romney would have them crushed, much like Reagan and Bush tried, and almost succeeded with. So it looks like the teachers face a choice....either reform and take their chances, or vote for a non union position and even lower pay, no benefits, and probably not even a job.

 

No regular Lefties want to chime in? It's Rahm Emanuel vs. the Teachers Union. Pretty powerful stuff going on here, folks. You may not have a dog in the race, but this is a political DISCUSSION forum. Won't you at least discuss this topic philosophically?

 

Good for the teachers....the best way to fight tyranny is to make waves. They're making them Good for them.

 

We will have to wait to see what your master says...

 

I follow no master. I'm not a lemming republican that does as commanded. You ought to know that by now Thurston.

 

Riiiight

 

This strike is hurting the children of Chicago. Is Rahm Emanuel right? Are the striking teachers right?

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I don't think either side gives a rats behind if the kids are hurt. On one hand you've got the special-interest dimocRATS & Rahmbo and on the other, the special-interest unions. There can't be any winners when these two sides face off only victims.

 

For some of the kids, it's the best thing since Christmas. ...until they realize the school will require a longer Spring session...to make up the lost days.

 

Old thread, but still very relevant:

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Chicago’s final decision to close 50 public schools – the single biggest reported closure in U.S. history – has again pitted Mayor Rahm Emanuel against the powerful teachers union.​

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The Democratic mayor is backing the city school board’s vote last week to help reduce an estimate $1 billionbudget shortfall by closing the under-attended elementary schools and programs.​

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"This decision has been delayed for a decade, and it's our children and our city that have paid the price for inaction," Emanuel said when the closures were proposed in March. "Consolidating schools is the best way to make sure all of our city's students get the resources they need to succeed in the classroom."​

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However, the 30,000-member union argues the closures target minority families in poor neighborhoods and has vowed to recruit a challenger when Emanuel seeks re-election in 2015.​

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“Clearly, we have to change the political landscape in the city,” Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said after the May 22 vote. “We have to go back to old-style democracy.”​

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Labor unions have in recent U.S. political history largely backed Democratic candidates, with the Chicago Teachers Union being among the most powerful in ward politics.​

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However, the teachers union has been at odds with Emanuel since his successful 2011 mayoral campaign when he vowed, if elected, to make such changes as extending the school day.​

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The rift widened when 30,000 city teachers walked off the job in September 2012 largely over job security, the extended classroom time and evaluations tied to student performance.​

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“I will not stand by while the children of Chicago are played as pawns,” said Emanuel, who blamed union infighting for prolonging the strike and vowed to get a court injunction to get teachers to return. “This was a strike of choice and … this continued action by union leadership is illegal.”​

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The Chicago public school system, the country’s third largest, has roughly 511,000 desks for 403,000 students and about 140 of its 681 schools are more than half empty, according to the city.​

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Though the mass closure is bigger than any other reported by a U.S. city, Detroit closed 59 schools in 2009 and 2010, according to a 2011 Pew Charitable Trusts study.​

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Whether the union can unseat Emanuel, a former Illinois congressman and chief of staff for President Obama, remains to be seen. But Lewis and other union leaders have already moved beyond bluster, hosting at least one in a series of planned training sessions for volunteers to register 100,000 new voters.​

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Lewis thinks the closings will result in no significant cost savings while forcing roughly half of the 30,000 impacted children to attend schools in other neighborhoods, making them vulnerable to turf wars and gang violence, in a city with 147homicides already this year.​

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She also argues the school board’s decision was made at the behest of Emanuel “who has no vision for improving the education of our children.”​

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Neither the union nor the mayor's office has returned requests for comment.​

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Emanuel has yet to publicly comment since the vote but issued a statement through is office saying he will “absorb the political consequences so our children have a better future,” according to The Chicago Sun-Times.​

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Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/01/rift-widens-between-emanuel-and-teachrift-widens-between-emanuel-and-teachers/#ixzz2UzAQb3Ot​