*** UPDATE *** Sun-Times…
Chicago Public School students appeared less likely to be heading back to school Tuesday after a Cook County judge declined Monday morning to take up immediately a lawsuit by Chicago Public Schools asking the judge to end the teachers strike.
In a brief hearing, Cook County Judge Peter Flynn told a city attorney he preferred to schedule a hearing on the matter for Wednesday, a city law department spokesman said. The spokesman could not immediately provide a reason for the delay.
Wednesday is, for now, the earliest possible time students could return if the teachers union House of Delegates votes to approve the tentative deal at its meeting Tuesday.
Chicago Public Schools balked at that timeframe, wanting to sent students back on Tuesday. It filed a lawsuit in Cook County court Monday morning, asking a judge to end the teachers strike because it is illegal and presents a “clear and present danger to public health and safety.”
[ *** End Of Update *** ]
* Sun-Times…
With Chicago Teachers Union delegates voting to stay on strike at least through Tuesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel Sunday accused the union of using children as “pawns’’ and vowed to seek a court order to halt the walkout.
The announcement from Emanuel came about an hour after CTU President Karen Lewis said “a clear majority’’ of delegates refused to suspend the strike until they had seen the exact contract language of the entire deal — something not expected until Tuesday.
Delegates just didn’t trust Chicago Public Schools not to try to slip one over on them if they called off the first CTU strike in 25 years without more study and discussion of the offer, Lewis said.
“Please write ‘trust’ in big giant letters because that’s what the problem is,’’ Lewis said. […]
“The big elephant in the room,’’ Lewis said, “is the closing of 200 schools”—a number CPS officials have denied.
“They [delegates] are extraordinarily concerned about it. It undergirds just about everything they talked about.’’
One delegate agreed the group wanted “something in writing to go on….We need more than just the bullet point break down.’’
* Mayor Emanuel’s full statement…
I will not stand by while the children of Chicago are played as pawns in an internal dispute within a union. This was a strike of choice and is now a delay of choice that is wrong for our children. Every day our kids are kept out of school is one more day we fail in our mission: to ensure that every child in every community has an education that matches their potential.
I have instructed the City’s Corporation Counsel to work with the General Counsel of Chicago Public Schools to file an injunction in circuit court to immediately end this strike and get our children back in the classroom. This continued action by union leadership is illegal on two grounds – it is over issues that are deemed by state law to be non-strikable, and it endangers the health and safety of our children.
I have also asked the President of the Board of Education, David Vitale, and the CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Jean-Claude Brizard, to explore every action possible to get our kids back into a classroom or educational facility.
While the union works through its remaining issues, there is no reason why the children of Chicago should not be back in the classroom as they had been for weeks while negotiators worked through these same issues.
* React…
CTU spokeswoman Stephanie Gadlin responded: “They said the Montgomery bus boycott was illegal, too.”
CTU leaders have said they believe teacher evaluation and recall are linked to pay and are thus fair game for a strike. The union also sought to insulate itself against a court injunction by filing an unfair labor practice complaint, just days before the strike.
The basis of that complaint was the union’s charge that CPS started illegally implementing provisions that had not been negotiated in the contract, such as failing to pay teachers step increases and implementing a new teacher evaluation system.
Filing an injunction is a risky move for Emanuel. If he loses in court, he would further anger teachers and make them more suspicious of the deal. If he wins, forcing teachers to end their strike could anger members of other unions.
* Mark Brown is furious…
Be clear in your own mind. Your leverage is gone. The deal doesn’t get any better after this and your standing with the community only goes downhill.
In fact, it started going downhill precipitously the moment union President Karen Lewis stepped before the television cameras Sunday to say school won’t reopen until Wednesday at the earliest. I don’t need to wait for a public opinion poll to know this.
By delaying, you don’t underscore your distrust for Mayor Rahm Emanuel or the leadership at Chicago Public Schools. You only expose a lack of trust in your own negotiating team and the leader of your team, Lewis.
You’re not showing you have a democratic union. You’re showing you have a union that is as tone deaf as all those national commentators have been saying for the past week. You’re showing yourself to be a union out of control.
If you don’t take this deal, you might as well dump Lewis and her team and start over because their credibility will be gone at the bargaining table.
* The Sun-Times editorial board is less so, but wants an end to this…
Teachers, take a day if you must. Then grab this deal while you still have it.
* Roundup…
* Rich Miller: School reform group played for sucker
* A plea for patience as Emanuel vows to sue to end strike
* CTU Blog: House of Delegates Votes to Continue Strike
* CTU Monday press conference info
* What’s in the teachers’ tentative deal
* Chicago teacher strike: Issues at the center of contract negotiations
* Summary Term Sheet: Tentative Agreement between the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Board of Education July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2015
* Tribune Editorial: CTU needs to know this deal won’t get sweeter
* Ongoing Chicago teachers strike frustrates parents
* VIDEO: Laura Washington analysis
* George H.W. Bush’s former education secretary rips Chicago teachers
* List of schools, churches, libraries open for students during strike
* Now, let’s go to the live feed. BlackBerry users click here. Everybody else can just watch..
- wordslinger - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 9:17 am:
Brown nailed it. The delegates either trust their union leadership to make a deal or they don’t.
If they send it back, who, exactly, is CPS supposed to negotiate with?
Lewis basically said Friday that they had a deal and that the kids could be in school today. That was the high point for public support of the union. It has nowhere to go but down from here.
- Lance Stevens - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 9:21 am:
why wouldn’t Rahm take this opportunity to blow up the CPS? Close a bunch of schools, lay off teachers? I mean really, the leadership strikes a deal, and then can’t get the rank in file to agree? They want more? Where is the money coming from?
- walkinfool - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 9:25 am:
I’m with Brown on this. The moment Lewis stepped in front of the microphones, and expounded on the issue of trust, the CTU PR disaster started careening down hill.
Can’t someone in the AFL-CIO instruct the teachers’ leaders how to act professionally in settling a strike? You don’t go out of your way to publicly attack the integrity of the other party while the final agreement is in hand awaiting approval.
I am with the teachers, for the most part. I just don’t like to watch them blowing this up from a PR perspective.
- OneMan - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 9:26 am:
If they come back Tuesday and say “get us a better deal” I suspect they will be out at least a month…
- Ron Burgundy - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 9:36 am:
Yeah, the CTU spokesperson comparing this to the Montgomery bus boycott was just a tad bit tone deaf.
- Judgment Day - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 9:39 am:
In all honesty, you have got to give the CTU plaudits for fighting a great battle under virtually hopeless circumstances.
If you looked at this from a military campaign, the CTU battle staff has been nothing short of brilliant.
But as a point, they are fighting a rear guard action. The end goal under those circumstances is to get your forces off the battlefield in good order, capable of coming back to fight another day.
As for the 200 +/- schools being closed and/or reorganized, well, that shouldn’t be surprising. CPS has no cash reserves (going to be all spent as part of this proposed contract), plus real estate taxes are going to have to go up, probably for each year of the agreement, plus there’s going to have to be major structural changes.
But given the CTU’s original negotiating terrain, they did a great job of working a contentious environment that by all rights they should have ended up suffered major losses.
Time to take a most unlikely victory and run.
- Peter Snarker - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 10:04 am:
When do teachers start missing paychecks? All the pain is on parents and the City now. See how fast things change when checks are missed. That’s the real test of will. I grew up in a union town where my friends fathers were out 6 months. The first week is a picnic…
- Loop Lady - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 10:05 am:
Okay, if you were a teacher and had to vote on a deal when the verbiage wasn’t finalized, what would you do? That’s what I thought.
Don’t think for a second that Emanuel isn’t cognizant of the loss of gleam to his public image and the bruising his ego has taken because of the strike.
The Trib stated this morning that CPS had a 1.2 billion dollar surplus when Daley
(remember him?) took over, and now has a 1.2 billion deficit. Monies for op expenses were taken from, where else the teacher pension funds.
Given recent history, I might have a lack of trust across the negotiating table as well. Lewis is no saint, but she’s no dummy.
- Wensicia - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 10:09 am:
Mark Brown is right. If you can’t accept the best deal your union leaders negotiate for you, you’re cutting your own throat. Remember, matters of state law cannot be negotiated away.
- Anonymice - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 10:14 am:
I don’t read the “we want to see the language before we vote” as distrust of the union negotiators. It could just as easily (and more plausibly) result from the fear that the language the CPS actually presents will not reflect the understanding of the teachers and the union negotiators, and leave them with the problem of accepting the language or being seen as nitpicking or even reneging on the deal.
I also dislike the ploy of accusing the other side of not caring about the children because they won’t agree today and let the kids go back to school. If the only unresolved issue is that the teachers want a 16% raise over 4 years, and the CPS wants 0%, either side could end the strike right now by giving in on this issue, and both are equally lacking in care for the children in failing to do so.
- Plutocrat03 - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 10:21 am:
“When do teachers start missing paychecks?”
Even if they miss a check now, they will be compensated at the end of the school year when the students make up the lost days.
Kind of different that the teachers don’t risk any (annualized) income while on strike.
- Foxfire - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 10:25 am:
From a recent news article:
“Vitale told reporters outside the Hilton last night there are no plans right now to close schools. But he said that going forward the district will have to deal with the problem of having more classroom seats—some 130,000 he said—than it needs.”
If you have more capacity than you need, shouldn’t closing schools be considered?
- OneMan - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 10:30 am:
Well for one thing they were voting to end the strike not approve the contract, HUGE difference.
So loop lady who don’t the teachers trust? Their union leadership who brought this to them?
- Joe Bidenopoulous - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 10:44 am:
==”They said the Montgomery bus boycott was illegal, too”==
Really? CTU is comparing teachers to African Americans in the South in the 50s? There should be some kind of Godwin’s law for that one. Tone deaf doesn’t begin to describe it…if that’s where their minds are, they’ve lost, and deservedly so. That comparison is despicable.
- 47th Ward - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 10:46 am:
This is worth a read:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/09/teachers-strike-chicago
- Loop Lady - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 10:57 am:
One Man: If you don’t think that if the teachers ended the strike and resumed teaching isn’t playing right into Rahms hands, I’ll have some of what you’re smoking…would you start working a contractual job without knowing what the fine print says? Have an attorney look it over?
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 11:16 am:
After the way rank-and-file teachers got burned on the education reform package, its not surprising that they want to read the fine print.
I do think Lewis has negotiated the best deal possible for teachers, but the membership wants to read it for themselves, and that is their prerogative.
My advice to the rank and file: Declare victory in this battle, with a long fight still ahead to ensure every Chicago kid has a chance at the world class education they deserve. A fight that must engage not just teachers, but also parents, employers, pastors, parishioners and community leaders.
- Fed up - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 11:33 am:
Rahm broke the last contract by denying them a negotiated raise. He negotiated unfairly by going to individual schools with separate deals. Rahm and his attitude and actions are the reasons their is no trust. I love some of the reforms like longer school day but Rahm can’t be trusted and the teachers know this. The teachers should have a chance to review the contract before voting. Not do a Pelosi and have to pass the bill before we can see the bill.
- Fed up - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 11:36 am:
Hmm intersting comparison if the city council took a couple of days to look over parking meter deal maybe the city wouldn’t of gotten screwed so bad.
- Emily Booth - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 11:40 am:
The CTU is exposing many of Rahm’s executive and managerial shortcomings. Teachers have a lot of support in Chicago.
- amalia - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 12:03 pm:
big point, the judge refused to take it up. that makes it worse for Rahm.
- Esquire - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 12:16 pm:
How does Rahm Emanuel not come across looking like a fool or the bad guy in all of this? First, he goaded the CTU into calling the union’s first strike in a quarter of a century and now the Court told him to take a seat until Wednesday, the date when Karen Lewis said that she thought classes would resume. I know many Chicagoans are angry about the strike, but how many people would agree to accept an important contract that not be reduced to writing and without an opportunity to read the same document? Obviously, the Sun-Times and Tribune editorial boards were fine with such an agreement sight unseen, but who would do such a deal in real life? Get it in writing and get it done.
- wordslinger - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 12:25 pm:
–The motion also contends that the strike is “a clear and present danger to public health and safety. It prohibits students from receiving critical educational and social services, including meals for students who otherwise may not receive proper nutrition, a safe environment during school hours and critical services for students who have special needs.”–
“Clear and present danger,” — someone watched Tom Clancy movies over the weekend. That’s maybe a bit over the top, perhaps?
If not, I expect the CPS to move to cancel all school holidays, winter, spring and summer breaks, to remain open on weekends and to be named public guardians of CPS students.
They might have to give the teachers another bump for all that, too. After all, it’s a “clear and present danger.”
- Rich Miller - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 12:26 pm:
===someone watched Tom Clancy movies over the weekend. That’s maybe a bit over the top, perhaps?===
Wording of the statute. They have to fulfill the law’s requirement.
- OneMan - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 12:31 pm:
Where to start…
First most unions when they have their delegates (stewards, whatever) get together to vote to end a strike they do it to get them to vote to end a strike, not ‘think it over’….
Secondly, wow for someone referencing contracts and attorneys you would think you would understand that the contract would not be binding on anyone until both parties (ratified/signed) it.
Third, played into Rahm’s hands? So that is what this is really about, not about the kids, not about A/C, it’s about Rahm? Also unless I really, really missed something wasn’t it the union leadership who got them together to do this, not Rahm. So is your argument the leadership knew this would play into Rahm’s hands and didn’t care? They knew this was going to be pushed back and decided to bring it to the delegates anyway to make Rahm look bad?
Seriously, I am personally curious what you think the union leadership thought would happen? If everyone wanted to wait on details, why go to them at all before they had all the details? I am curious what you think the union leadership was expecting/looking for…
I ask these questions without wondering ‘what you may be smoking’ because unlike the CTU president when she was in college (so she seems to say) I am not smoking anything?
- BMAN - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 12:36 pm:
CTU hasn’t rejected anything, they just want it written in black and white. What sane person can depend on the word of a politician?
- Plutocrat03 - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 12:37 pm:
After indicating the students will be back today, I’ve heard a number of parents who are CTU supporters grumble a bout the delay.
Can’t say the union is winning any friends on this.
They are starting to look like the bullies they are accusing every one else of being.
- Cook County Commoner - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 12:41 pm:
What we’re seeing here is a chapter in the slow but inevitable divestiture of state and local government of direct ownership and management of non-essential, non-safety services which the private sector can provide. The money to support direct government employee (except at the federal level because it can print money) salaries and retirement security is drying up. Also, the linkage between government employee money and politicians has created such a disparity between private sector salaries and retirement benefits that politicians need to drastically reduce headcount before the general public wakes up to the wealth transfer that has been going on for decades.
I can’t blame the teachers’union for striking. Job security and lack of effective evaluation as you work towards an early, well funded retirement is worth armed combat.
But the politicians sense their own vulnerabilty due to the inequities they have created so it’s time to start throwing their supporters under the bus.
However the current situation plays out, the process will continue. And the only safe play for government job elitism is with the federal government and its ever ready printing press.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 12:52 pm:
@wordslinger -
The argument goes something like this: CPD can’t keep kids safe, so CPS must.
It seems odd that the city would admit it cant keep residents safe in a legal document.
- Fed up - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 1:08 pm:
Not being in school a clear and present danger to children. Spring break cancelled unless you promise to leave the city. Rahm incompetence is getting harder and harder to hide.
- wordslinger - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 1:14 pm:
–What we’re seeing here is a chapter in the slow but inevitable divestiture of state and local government of direct ownership and management of non-essential, non-safety services which the private sector can provide.–
I wouldn’t call public schools non-essential by any stretch of the imagination. And they are ingrained in American history.
There were mandated public schools, supported by tax levies, in Massachusetts in the 1600s. Pennsylvania, in 1790, was the first state with a constitutional requirement for a free public education for all.
- Rudy - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 1:26 pm:
CTU knows the CPS team is capable of putting things into writing quickly. Overnight, CPS presented CTU with a surprise 19-point written proposal last week, to which CPS demanded a written response. But CPS didn’t work so quickly this time to put their negotiated settlement into writing, raising CTU suspicions. If school were to resume and CPS proffers a written agreement that does not reflect the negotiated points, CTU would lose what they thought they had.
- Irish - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 1:46 pm:
Once again media and people commenting when they don’t understand the situation.
You have a situation where the CPS and the Governor have canceled contracts or portions of contracts just because they didn’t want to fulfill them. So there is no trust with elected officials anymore.
The delegates who are supposed to represent their members in deciding if the framework is solid enough to go back to work or if they have to stay out, got a 180 page document late yesterday that they have to decipher before they make their decision. They asked for more time to read it, understand it, and then make a decision on it. It is a process. The negotiators did their thing, now the delegates do their thing, if they approve it the strike will probably be suspended until the rank and file ratify it. Anybody that has any experience with these things knows that is the process. So either the news media and the Mayor are ignorant of the process or they are just looking for an excuse to take a whack at the teachers. The more grown up thing the Mayor should have done would have been to acknowledge the process, and then express his sincere wish that the framework be approved, and everyone moves forward. All he has done with his little temper tantrum is acknowledge that there is reason for the CTU not to trust him and to be even more cautious in further dealings with him and his appointees.
- Skeeter - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 1:58 pm:
Rahm’s not serious.
Filing suit is not serious when nobody believes that it will make a difference. If the City would get the TRO, the teachers would stay out. They did not comply with the law when striking was illegal. They won’t comply now.
We will know he’s serious when he announces that replacement teachers have been hired.
Until then, this is all show.
- Will Caskey - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 2:33 pm:
Flynn kicking it to Wednesday was not surprising in the least. I wouldnt want an angry mob and/or mail tsunami at my next retention vote either.
In fact I’d probably take any steps up to and including breaking my own limbs to not rule on this particular case.
- wordslinger - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 3:03 pm:
===someone watched Tom Clancy movies over the weekend. That’s maybe a bit over the top, perhaps?===
Wording of the statute. They have to fulfill the law’s requirement. ==
Thanks, now I get it. Still, it seems a silly argument to bring up in court when the kids regularly are out of school at weeks at a time.
- Anonymous - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 3:18 pm:
If this is “just the process” then why did CTU state that they expected kids to back in school Monday at the earliest? CTU would have been better from a PR point of view to either explain the process Friday (i.e set expectations), or call an earlier meeting to give delegates time to review the document. why call the meeting for 3pm on Sunday when CTU is rallying on Saturday? If everyone (CTU) is as serious about wanting to get back to the classroom, then why weren’t the delegates reading the document Saturday? The PR from both camps is crazy frustrating. I just want my son back in school. Enough shenanigans. We know CTU doesn’t like Rahm and vice versa. I don’t give a hoot about the finger-pointing blame game. It’s unprofessional on all sides. Everybody is angry - we live in a world where there is a lot of discontent. Blasting CPS / Rahm is not going change anything. Compromise and negotiation will. Back to school please.
- hisgirlfriday - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 3:27 pm:
Some points on the lawsuit I haven’t seen mentioned yet…
If the strike was illegal, why didn’t Rahm file the lawsuit last week? And if kids being out of school during the strike was such a “clear and present danger,” why didn’t we hear about out of control riots and mayhem caused by the kids out of school last week?
- OneMan - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 4:02 pm:
For more on the concept of Clear and Present Danger (the legal concept, not the book)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_and_present_danger
Not an attorney but it seems the question is in part “Can it cause” not “It has caused” in a logical conversation you can say the tree limb above your car that hanging on just by a little bit may present “A Clear and Present Danger” to your car without it having to fall on it.
So just because there are not riots in the streets it would seem to me the lack of said riots does not invalidate the “Clear and Present Danger” argument, I suspect the concept under discussion would be in part the Danger.
- Irish - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 4:13 pm:
Anon - I did not see anyone from CTU saying the kids would be back in school on Monday. I saw the press trying to put those words in CTU’s mouth but everything I saw had CTU being very cautious about setting any firm date. I also saw the union leadership making the statement over and over that the delegates would get the framework on Sunday. I am not laying the blame on either side for the short turnaround on the framework.
I also don’t have the skin in the game that you do and I empathize with your predicament and hope that for the kids sake all of this gets resolved very quickly.
I just have an issue with the main stream media and the politicians and their appointees, who don’t listen to the explanations given and then make up their own opinions on what is said and that becomes gospel. MSM cannot take not having information and if they can’t get it they make it up. They have to fill their time slot and any bs will do whether there is any truth in it or not.
- Wensicia - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 4:36 pm:
What clear and present danger exists that did not the week before school started?
- Peter Snarker - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 4:49 pm:
So no one knows when teachers would start missing paychecks I take it?
- Esquire - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 4:56 pm:
The kicker is that the teachers’ union has been in virtually lockstep with the Democratic Party forever (okay, the CTU supported Thompson over Dever in 1927) and endorsed all of their candidates without fail, including Blagojevich twice. On a state level, the only GOP candidates to merit IFT or IEA support are in solidly GOP districts, but those incumbents are few and far between. So, it is hardly surprising that the CTU feels betrayed by the mayor and the school board.
Their party loyalty counted for nothing when the going got rough.
- Loop Lady - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 5:11 pm:
OneMan: What this is really about is a better working environment for both teachers and students.
I am a member of a union (AFSCME) that was guaranteed a raise by virtue of a signed contract between parties and did not receive said raise as specified. Some members of the union received their raise, while some didn’t. The Governor chose to give the raises based on who knows what? He also said that the money wasn’t appropriated by the legislature. Say what? What relevance does that have based on the contract? Please reread Irish’s post. The answer to this dilemma is a lack of trust of politicians by union employees because they have repeatly reneged or ignored contracts. Binding. Legal. Agreements.
This is about Rahm to a great extent, because he has handled this labor dispute very badly by goading the teachers soon after his election and disrespecting them by pushing his agenda down their throats.
Are we done now?
- Skeeter - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 5:19 pm:
Loop Lady,
I sure wish more people would shove a “Let’s improve our schools” agenda down our throats.
You don’t believe your boss? Great. If you don’t like it, find another job. That’s the responsible thing to do. If you can’t trust the person writing the check, move on to another position.
- Loop Lady - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 5:46 pm:
Skeeter,not the point. As Rich says, bite me. Simple minds do like simple solutions.
- Skeeter - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 5:51 pm:
Loop Lady,
Thanks for that witty and intelligent retort!
On a somewhat related matter, do you spend much time wondering why people think government workers are unpleasant and overpaid?
- Rich Miller - Monday, Sep 17, 12 @ 5:53 pm:
Peter, I think they get their last check Friday.