As Chicago students enjoy their summer vacation, the new progressive leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is hard at work organizing and strategizing to combat perhaps the worst labor and educational crisis the city’s beleaguered public school system has ever seen.
On May 25, thousands of Chicago parents, students and teachers protested downtown against plans to fire hundreds of teachers, close more schools and increase class sizes to 35 students, in light of a $600 million budget shortfall. Fifth-grade elementary teacher and filmmaker Al Ramirez called the protest a “coming out party” for the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE), the progressive teachers’ union slate that won a run-off election to lead the union two weeks after that protest.
The 73-year-old, 31,000-member CTU has long been controversial, painted by city officials as greedy and bloated while also criticized by teachers and parents as ineffective and too tight with the administration. The past decade has been characterized by two warring union slates who had taken union elections to court and spent years fighting each other.
In the original May 21 election, none of the five slates running won a majority. But in the run-off election June 11, CORE trounced the incumbent United Progressive Caucus 12,080 to 8,326, winning every office.
CORE was formed two and a half years ago by teachers who had worked together on social justice issues related to education and after the election, CORE hit the ground running, finishing out the school year and keeping its momentum going into the summer with its trademark community organizing style. In recent weeks they have held meetings at Rainbow PUSH, Rev. Jesse Jackson’s civil rights organization, and joined the monthly Critical Mass bike ride.
Among their battles are the school board’s move to increase class sizes to 35 students because of the budget crisis, and to “honorably discharge” teachers, abruptly cutting off pension and health benefits that in the past they could have held on to for months while subbing after being laid off. Ramirez, a union trustee with CORE, said about 80 teachers were only notified on June 18 that their employment and benefits would end June 30. The union says the lay-offs of tenured teachers is a contract violation.
CORE is also calling to revoke mayoral control of the schools; to make class size and counselor loads subject to collective bargaining; to limit standardized testing and prohibit punishing teachers based on test scores; to fund all schools equitably regardless of local tax base; and to return all tax increment financing (TIF) money to schools. (TIF districts supposedly spur urban renewal by funneling tax dollars to private development subsidies.)
CORE also ran on a platform of limiting the salaries of union officials to match average teacher pay. Incumbent union president Marilyn Stewart was paid almost a quarter million a year in salary and benefits for her union posts (both with the CTU and the parent Illinois Federation of Teachers).
New union president Karen Lewis has called the mayor’s Renaissance 2010 school reform plan, culminating this year and revolving around the reorganizing and closing of schools, “a disaster.” She has said that in general mayoral control of the school system is “an abomination.”
Newly minted union leaders note that they have a serious challenge in coming to office right after the disastrous rounds of lay-offs, the closing of more than 40 schools, the dwindling of pension funds and the budget cuts that were initiated under the old union leadership’s watch. While they didn’t have official power to fight these moves, the way they deal with them will determine how teachers and community members view their new leadership.
“We inherited the helm in the midst of one of the worst storms ever,” said Sanchez.
He noted the “School Board’s use of the economic crisis to push forward insane policies, unfair policies.”
“I call it the Katrina syndrome — the hurricane is here, let’s use it to bust the union, fire people, create nonunion shops,” he said. “We’re dealing with firings, disregard for tenure rights, disregard for veteran teachers, disregard for the contract.”
Since its founding, CORE has been based on a united, inclusive front involving teachers, students, parents and other community members, including community organizations that work on immigration, housing and other issues. CORE played a key role in organizing rallies to protect specific neighborhood schools from scheduled closings. Community outcry prevented 12 schools from closing, saving about 1,000 jobs. CORE leaders say that approach is key to protecting teachers’ rights and the right to a decent education in the current political and budget climate.
Sanchez said the new leadership also welcomes more interaction and cooperation with other unions.
“The labor community in Chicago can expect to be invited or welcomed in terms of their struggles and trying to collaborate,” he said. “If we don’t contact them they should contact us. We definitely as a city labor movement need to pull together. Up until this point not enough of this has happened. We need to start fighting together.”
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Kari Lydersen is a Chicago-based journalist, author and assistant professor at Northwestern University, where she leads the investigative specialization at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Her books include Mayor 1%: Rahm Emanuel and the Rise of Chicago’s 99%.
