The Chicago Teachers Union members authorize a strike if necessary

A day after the CTU announced that 96.5 percent of members casting ballots voted to authorize a strike should contract negotiations fail, the union says Claypool’s “short-term sacrifice equals long-term pain”. The earliest a strike could occur is March, according to CTU officials.

State law says 75 percent of membership must approve authorization. New, democratic procedures within the union’s governing body; intense member political education programs; a new organizing department that took membership engagement seriously-the CTU under CORE came as close to organizing schools top-to-bottom, across the district’s six-hundred-plus schools, as was probably possible.

Rather than a strike, Mayor Emanuel says the teachers union should join him in lobbying Springfield to give Chicago more money, but Sharkey says the current Springfield plan is a road to nowhere.

CTU’s contract expired over the summer, but talks haven’t progressed.

The Chicago Teachers Union released the results of its strike vote at a Monday news conference at its headquarters in the Merchandise Mart. “I think what we need to do is find solutions that make sure our kids are going to be able to stay in school”.

In an e-mailed statement, Claypool said the district has “the highest respect for our teachers’ work”, but a strike is not the answer.

He reiterated the union’s demands: better teaching conditions, reduction in testing, adequate staffing, and equipping schools with tools to help the communities they serve with social issues.

“We’re not going to take it lying down that there are just these big cuts, and we’re not going to treat it like a fait accompli that the only way they can do this is cutting”, Sharkey said.

While teachers have repeatedly demonstrated their determination to fight, the CTU, which includes members of the pseudo-left International Socialist Organization (ISO) in leading posts, is opposed to any struggle against the Democratic Party and corporate and financial interests demanding school cuts and austerity. That prompted the union last week to file an unfair labor practice claim with the Illinois Educational Relations Board.

Chicago’s teachers last struck in 2012, canceling seven days of classes in a dispute over the length of the school day, layoffs, and the role of performance evaluations.

“On Monday I attended contract negotiations personally to offer teachers a comprehensive four-year [contract] that would guarantee there are no mid-year layoffs”.

The threatened strike is a high-pressure tactic meant to menace Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has become a bitter foe of teachers unions because of his various efforts to reign in costs and improve outcomes in the city’s low-performing schools. That year, almost 90 percent of teachers voted to strike.

“It does require, it does ask for a short-term sacrifice through a gradual phase out of the pension pickup, but it makes up for that with a gradual pay increase through the life of the contract”, Claypool said.