Democratic Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Chooses Labor Day Weekend to Subvert Union Bargaining Rights
Officers of the Chicago Teachers Union reacted with fury on the Friday before the Labor Day weekend began, upon learning that Jean-Claude Brizard, the controversial Chief Executive Officer of Chicago's public schools, had announced by press release that two Chicago elementary schools had supposedly voted for a waiver of the union contract earlier in the day. According to the union officials, the union had received no information either from the schools or from the Board of Education that the supposed votes had taken place. By late afternoon, a third school had been added to the list, a school that had not even held its first class for students.
"This is an insult to all of our 30,000 members," CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey told a small press conference hastily convened at the union's Merchandise Mart offices at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, September 2, 2011.
Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey (above right) spoke with the media on Friday, September 2, after the union learned that the mayor and the schools CEO had issued a press release announcing two elementary school waivers without informing the union. With Sharkey above is CTU Financial Secretary Kristine Mayle. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.
CROSS POSTED @
http://www.substancenews.net/...
The two elementary schools were Skinner North Elementary School (640 W. Scott St.) and Melody Elementary (412 S. Keeler). According to union officials, union records showed that Skinner North had 14 teachers and Melody had 23. Under the union's contract rules, waiver votes are supposed to take place upon 48 hours' notice and by secret ballot. In most cases, waivers are voted on by union teachers on the school's staff (other staff at the schools are also members of the CTU, or of other unions representing school workers). By late afternoon, union sources were saying that none of the waiver votes had been conducted legally according to the union contract.
Included for each of the schools are the 2 percent teacher pay raises and a $150 thousand planning grant.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/...
During the 3:00 p.m. press conference (which began 20 minutes late), Sharkey told reporters who were able to make the event that the union had not been informed either by the schools or by CPS that the supposed waiver votes had taken place.
Later in the afternoon, union officials said that they had heard that a third school, the new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) school (1522 W. Flournoy) had also voted on a contract waiver. STEM has not yet held its first class, since it is opening this school year. According to one union staff member, the school did not yet have a union delegate, and was therefore not legally able to hold a waiver vote without requesting that the vote be conducted by the union's representatives.
Three Chicago Public Schools Agree to Extended School Day
In a statement issued by the union, Sharkey charged "CTU contends that the Board has coerced principals to force this waiver vote on their staff. We have heard of gifts being offered as bribes to teachers and other concessions if they vote for a longer school day."
According to CPS officials, a majority of teachers at Genevieve Melody, Skinner North and Stem Magnet Academy elementary schools approved the pacts to extend the school day. They were rewarded with one-time bonuses equal to roughly 2 percent of the average district salary.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/...
The CTU also provided reporters with a copy of a grievance filed against the Board of Education on August 30 on the waiver questions. The grievance, which was submitted to Cheryl Colson, Director of Labor and Employee Relations at CPS on August 30,m states: "The Chicago Teachers Union contends that individual school principals have demanded that the school Union Delegate , and all bargaining unit members, take a WAIVER vote to increase the school day an additional 90 minutes per day. The Chicago Teachers Union views this demand by the school principals as a form of coercion and a violation of the Agreement and Board Policy!'"
Skinner North Principal Ethan Netterstrom (above) told Substance that the waiver had passed at the school by a vote of 9 to 6 on the morning of September 2. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.
Union officials also told Substance that the union was consulting attorneys about whether the Chicago Board of Education had violated Illinois labor law and basic union contract law by offering incentives directly to teachers at the schools through the principals. Under Article 1 of the Agreement between the Board of Education of the City of Chicago and the Chicago Teachers Union (the contract), the law and the contract bar management from negotiating directly with union members. It is a long-established principle of labor law that the boss cannot circumvent the union's right to represent its members. The concept of management going directly to the workers is basic to the version of economic reality pushed by corporations like Wal Mart, which maintain that every worker has the power to negotiate his or her terms and conditions of employment in an individual negotiation with the corporation.
Friday Morning News before the "non-coerced" School Building votes
During Friday's ABC7 News This Morning show, Brizard about his proposal, which so far, the teachers union has not agreed to. if new CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard has his way, some of them will soon have longer school days.
"Hoping to actually get a few schools to launch a longer school day this year, but we are pushing for system-wide changes next year."
http://abclocal.go.com/...
At approximately noon on September 2, 2011, the Chicago Public Schools Office of Communications issued the press release below, which was received by Substance at the Substance email address (and was apparently received by other news organizations as well). The press release includes a quotation which supposedly has been made both by Mayor Emanuel and CEO Brizard.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:. September 2, 2011. Statement from Mayor Emanuel and CPS CEO Brizard on Teachers that Voted in Favor of Longer School Day Today at Their Schools
CHICAGO—This morning, teachers at Genevieve Melody Elementary and Skinner North Elementary schools voted on a waiver that would lengthen their school day by 90 minutes. The passage of waivers require a 50% + 1 of all voting teachers. Both schools received the required 50% + 1 to pass the waiver and extend their school day by 90 minutes.
Statement by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard:
“We thank the courageous teachers and principals today for their dedication to investing in our children’s future by supporting a longer school day. This is a historic step forward in bringing the kind of change we need in the classroom to help our children get the world class education they deserve. Despite the hard work of teachers throughout the system, our children are falling behind. They need more time in the classroom to be successful. Teachers stood up today to say they want to help lead this change. We support them and commend them for the message they are sending to our city that our children must come first. We hope more principals, teachers and parents will come together to put our children first.”
FLASHBACK to August 23, 2011
Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard offers one group of bargaining unit memebrs a rasie and not the other(union busting starts @ 4:47 runs about 2 minutes)
Next Day announcement by another principal contradicts CEO statements and Skinner Principal's statements September 3, 2011 6:37 PM
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), in filing a grievance over the votes at the STEM Magnet Academy, Skinner North Classical and Melody Elementary Schools, claimed that “pressure, coercion and bribery” were the only reasons teachers at the three schools voted to accept the offer.
STEM Principal Maria McManus denied it.
“My teachers actually were asking for a longer school day,” she said. “We have a very unique curriculum at the STEM Magnet Academy and in order to effectively execute that they felt as though they needed a longer school day.”
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/...
The Labor Day weekend announcement follows weeks of public relations work by Chicago's mayor claiming that the Chicago Teachers Union should be willing to accept a "two percent" raise (after CPS rescinded the contractual four percent raise for all unionized workers at its first June meeting) and an extension of the school day by 90 minutes. The campaign by Mayor Rahm Emanuel has included demonstrations at the Chicago Board of Education led by preachers who support the mayor(and are often subsidized directly or indirectly by City Hall) and an announcement on the "Chicago Tonight" TV show by Brizard that the Board was "offering" two percent for the longer school day the mayor was demanding.
CROSS POSTED @
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UPDATE: LOGIC - Rahm worse than Walker
Walker says he wants to destroy unions => he uses his power to change the law
Rahm says he is pro-labor => he uses public resources to break existing contracts and IL Labor law