Chicago public school teachers authorize strike

[24107]

Chicago public school teachers have voted overwhelmingly to give their union the authority to
strike if contract negotiations with the city break down this
summer - a move the head of the schools called "a shame."

Nearly 90 percent of the Chicago Teachers Union
rank-and-file members voted to authorize a strike, exceeding the
required 75 percent, the union said on Monday. A strike would
affect more than 400,000 students.

The strike authorization vote allows the union representing
21,000 teachers to call a strike in the event contract
negotiations falter. Chicago teachers last went on strike in
1987 for four weeks.

"The results are not a win," said Karen Lewis, the teachers
union president, who announced the vote results at a
conference. "They are an indictment of the state of the
relationship between the management of (Chicago Public
Schools)and its largest labor force, members of the Chicago
Teachers Union."

Chicago public school teachers authorize strike - chicagotribune.com

 

[Shadow Serious]

The following article has more info:

Vote could push Chicago closer to teachers strike - Yahoo! News


And I point the the point of controversy in the article.

The frustration largely centers around Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who rescinded a 4 percent raise last year and then began pushing for a longer school day. Teachers say the mayor — and now the district — have not offered them enough money to make up for the added time.

Chicago Public Schools has proposed a five-year deal that guarantees teachers a 2 percent pay raise in the first year and lengthens the school day by 10 percent. The union wants a two-year deal that reduces class size and calls for teachers to receive a 24 percent pay raise in the first year and a 5 percent pay raise in the second year.

It is a issue with pay. If they work longer hours then some sort of compensation should be made. I think part of the problem is the school district is too large to manage properly being third largest in the nation. Outside of that maybe if there were more non-governmental schools and more charter schools both teachers and students would benefit. The only issue here though is the pay and whether Chicago is willing to rob from some other sector of the nanny state to pay the teachers more or not.

 

[justabubba]

The following article has more info:

Vote could push Chicago closer to teachers strike - Yahoo! News


And I point the the point of controversy in the article.





It is a issue with pay. If they work longer hours then some sort of compensation should be made. I think part of the problem is the school district is too large to manage properly being third largest in the nation. Outside of that maybe if there were more non-governmental schools and more charter schools both teachers and students would benefit. The only issue here though is the pay and whether Chicago is willing to rob from some other sector of the nanny state to pay the teachers more or not.

the reality is the chicago teachers are among the best compensated in the nation, already
despite that they spend the shortest school day in the nation teaching
rahm said this morning that the kids need a longer school day and the teachers need a raise
sounds like the beginnings of a solution

this is a political calculation
Obama NEEDS labor this year
so, this forces the president to pick his poison: choose the unions, or choose rahm, his former chief of staff
either choice presents problems for Obama
rahm will broker a reasonable deal before it hurts the re-election efforts