Chicago Teachers Set Strike Date
 

Teachers in the Chicago schools are going on strike in seven days if a contract agreement will not be reached. There is a lot of misinformation being put out there right now, because the local media is extremely Rahm-friendly, but the teachers are afraid of huge class sizes (up to 55 kids), increased testing, and an increase of outsourcing educational functions to technology firms tied to King Emanuel.

Today, as we all enjoy our Labor Day holiday, I hope everyone will take a moment to educate themselves on all that unions have accomplished for every one of us, and, if you wish to form an opinion on the CPS strike, to seek out publications that tell both sides of the story.

I stand with Chicago teachers.

Apparently I shouldn't be appalled when I see a roster of 29 students.... wow. 55?

Yes. State lawmakers have passed a law (at Rahm's urging) to say that can't be negotiated, along with a bunch of other things. So, the teachers are holding out in salary negotiations as their only lever to get that changed. It's being reported as "Chicago teachers demand 30% raise", but really, they want lawmakers to give them a fair deal, and salary is the only negotiation point they have.

Good luck to them! It's hard enough teaching a class of 20, let alone 55. By the time you finish babysitting, combating cell phones, etc. there won't be any time left for teaching. ....How on earth are the physical classrooms large enough to accommodate this? About 5 years ago I had a few classes of 32 and 33. I only had room for 28 desks in my room. Luckily at the HS level you CAN get by with having kids sit on the ledge in the back of the room. Definitely not ideal, but 55? that's insane. I'm only even thinking of high school. 55 1st graders would make me want to crawl into a corner and rock in the fetal position. That'd be a crazy amount of nose picking. Ewwwwwwww.

I hope the Chicago teachers use social media to let the public know what the real issues are. It's a very powerful outlet that isn't dependent on news sources.

Cuts to education are leading to similar situations all over. My kids have been in classes of 40 kids in high school routinely as cuts keep getting deeper.

Michigan has a ballot proposal that might be on the ballot in November (it is tied up in courts right now) about keeping the right to collective bargaining. These are the kinds of reasons it is important.

Unbelievable that Chicago keeps electing the same idiots and expecting things to get better.

I hope the CPS teachers continue the good fight! These huge class sizes and continued under-funding don't allow teachers to teach or students to get a quality education.

Lol, I actually live about a half mile outside city limits, but in fairness to Chicagoans, their other choice was Carol Moseley Braun.

Single-party rule is never a good thing. I've also never been a big fan of the 'strong mayor' municipal government. Especially when you're talking about what are for all practical purposes city-states. There's just too much power in one place.

Absolutely. My husband gathered a lot of signatures for that petition, and the canvassing board voted along party lines (2-2) as to whether it could go on the ballot. I thought that they should be impartial, but apparently not. Now it's in the courts, but I think it will move forward. The Court of Appeals voted in favor...now it's at the Michigan Supreme Court.

Well, the streets get plowed!

It's too bad the greedy UAW has ruined the word "union". ALL for teachers unions, police unions, fire unions. But you and I both know "union" is a bad word around here.

The ballot proposal is because of efforts to bust the police, fire and teacher unions though.

We have unions to thank for a lot. We wouldn't have the pay we have, the holidays, weekends, and benefits that we have if they hadn't fought for those things for their people. The only reason I get raises, bonuses and half of my holidays is because the employees who are bargaining unit employees fight for them. Us non bargaining unit folks get to go for that ride because of their bargaining.

Union is only a bad word to people who don't recognize the advantages of them. Remember the newspaper strike? Lots of people canceled the paper because it was being produced by scabs. Lots of people won't shop at Walmart because they are non-union. It's not a bad word to everybody.

Preface: This is not an attack or rant against PM_Mama00, but something that i felt I needed to share. Please read it with my voice being calm and collected.


I'm really hoping that you used "greedy UAW" in a sarcastic sense.

The UAW gets a lot of blame and a lot of misinformation directed toward them. My father worked for GM (in a parts plant) for 30 years and was a proud member of UAW for that time. UAW made sure that my father was paid a working wage (which was only $15/hour when he retired), had health benefits that didn't put us in the poor house on public welfare when I was in the hospital for a week with salmonella poisoning at age 9 (from a pet turtle - who knew?), and contributed toward a pension for his time spent working (which is only about $1200 a month).

When the auto industry was in danger of complete collapsing, the UAW granted many concessions in order to save jobs and the industry. The pensioners lost their health care from GM. UAW picked up the health care of all the retirees.

UAW saw that my father received a livable wage, health benefits, job protection (Yes, union employees can be fired from their jobs, but the unions make sure that policies are followed and not just because a boss has taken a dislike to an employee), and let him be able to put 4 kids through college- with 3 of them becoming teachers (something that my dad is extremely proud of).

Oh, and the "greedy UAW", has fought for equal positions and pay for women and minority workers, equal protection for religious and sexual orientation, and other protections.

Those are all the good things the union has done. No one can deny that. My problem with them now is that they keep pushing and pushing and pushing. It's not about making things fair for the employee (which was their original intent), it's about squeezing the company for any penny they can get. Why is someone with barely a high school education, standing there pushing a button all day, making $23/hr? And why is someone who wasn't even with the company (GM) a year offered a $77,000 buyout? That's more than twice my salary and I have a bachelors degree and work for an automotive supplier! Yes the union is there to prevent the big wigs from taking advantage of the laborer, but I think some things have gotten out of hand. Ever talk to a UAW worker who's been laid off or took a buyout and was now looking for a job? $15/hr is below them. They will never find a job outside of working the line for $20something/hr with the education they have. This is a story from someone I knew who WHINED that after taxes, they only got $47,000. (ETA: the execs have also milked these companies dry. I can't believe how much some of them make and how many free cars they get, but a lot of those people worked their way up and have huge responsibilities. Either way, EVERYONE should've taken pay cuts, from the top down to the bottom)

And on the other hand, I see our fire and police departments dwindling down. I see their pensions being threatened to be taken away. I see my teacher friends with classroom sizes in the 30s. Those are unions I can get behind, not ones that milked a company so dry that they had to have the government bail them out. What your dad has gone through, that's not how it is anymore.