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NEWS RELEASE
IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Stephanie Gadlin
September 26, 2016 312-329-6250
Teachers vote 95 percent to authorize strike to resolve contract dispute
CTU House of Delegates to meet Wednesday to discuss possible strike date
CHICAGO—The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) today released totals of its recent strike authorization vote. Now, its governing body will meet in a special session on Wednesday, Sept. 28 to determine the next steps, including whether to issue a 10-day strike notice to the Chicago Board of Education. If that happens, the first possible date for a teachers’ strike would be Oct. 11. This would be the third work stoppage by the city’s public school educators since Mayor Rahm Emanuel took office in 2011.
The Union’s Rules & Election Committee reported that on a 90.6 percent turnout, 95.6 percent of votes cast voted in favor to strike. This should come as no surprise to the Board, the mayor or parents because educators have been angry about the school-based cuts that have hurt special education students, reduced librarians, counselors, social workers and teachers’ aides, and eliminated thousands of teaching positions.
The CTU House of Delegates will meet this week to discuss the next steps in the contract fight. CTU officers and rank-and-file members will conduct a press conference at the conclusion of that session to share the results of those deliberations.
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The Chicago Teachers Union represents nearly 27,000 teachers and educational support personnel working in the Chicago Public Schools, and by extension, the more than 400,000 students and families they serve. The CTU is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Federation of Teachers and is the third largest teachers local in the United States and the largest local union in Illinois. For more information please visit CTU’s website at http://www.ctunet.com.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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Those numbers are out of the ball park. That is what happens when unions are reorganized from the bottom up. That is what happens when members communicate with one another. I wish them luck.
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Gary Johnson does not believe that public employees should have the right to form unions, let alone to strike. Trump is anti-union, that’s the GOP way. Hillary may not be perfect but at least she is not advocating the destruction of unions. SHE GETS MY VOTE!!!
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You mean the same Gary Johnson that sees the solution to climate destruction as colonizing other planets? And they called Jerry Brown a “moonbeam” candidate!
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I agree she gets my vote just not my heart .
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Striking is what workers do when they are pushed to the brink, and the issues are bigger than their need to earn a living. Striking is a legitimate response to oppression. Chicago is a bundle of angry chaos due to the failure of the government. Black communities are erupting in violence as a result of being marginalized, and the closure of so many public schools has contributed to the unrest. When public schools are closed, the central hub of security and humanity becomes upended. The shameful leadership of the city has blood on its hands.
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Striking is better than another River Rouge. But you’d think as angry as voters are, they would support labor. Instead, I hear people complain, then vote Republican. The sheep just follow the tail in front of them.
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They follow the tail in front of them, and do whatever the noise from TV demands.
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That is the biggest failure of the labor movement the failure to educate its own members. That is the hope that Unions like CTU bring. Only an educated in touch membership participates in those huge numbers.
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23,386 Chicago teachers out of almost 27,000 that pay union dues in a democratic organization VS one man, Rahm Emanuel, who doesn’t deserve the title of mayor, and the autocratic, political, neo-liberal money machine that supports him.
About 1,000 teachers voted against the strike, less than 4 percent of the total union membership. The odds favor that they are registered Republicans, conservatives (since about a third of all public school teachers across the country are members of the GOP), and some resent paying dues to a union that doesn’t represent their political views. That’s why Right to Work laws that cripple workers rights, pay and benefits exist. That’s like blowing your foot off because it itches.
Anyway, this is where democracy comes in. The rule is by consensus, not a small number of outliers that disagree with the overwhelming majority. These outliers that don’t like what the majority votes probably think white supremacists shouldn’t have to pay taxes and should be allowed to ignore the U.S Constitution and/or break any laws while the president is from a minority in the U.S.
On that note, since I’ve already gone off topic, the latest episode of HBO’s John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight is really worth watching to the end before watching the first presidential debate. John Oliver gives us a comparison of scandals, Trump vs Hillary. If you watch the video, hang on, wait to the end and count the raisins. Especially any Hillary haters.
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Great show
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I fully support and stand with public school teachers…not just in Chivago, but everywhere across our great nation.
Public educators and public school children for the past 5+ years have been victim to a systematic and criminal hoax perpetrated by the uber wealthy in the war declared upon the citizens and working class by the privatization “profiteer”.
The attacks by the reformers against these two groups demonstrate the immediate need to harness in those forces that attack our public and our public education from shadows with endless checking accounts.
The reformers represent a class of society that is the lowest of the low. They have no respect or regard for our democracy, for our public servants, or for our children.
These attacks against the most vulnerable individuals in our nation would not have lasted this long without the complicity of elected officials, who have used our democratic channels to attain office, and then sold their constituents and their souls to the very wealthy that have financed this attack on our nation. These politicians are a disgrace and must receive all the spotlight due a sell-out who flagrantly harms our children.
The “strike” that the teachers of Chicago have voted to authorize should continue as a strike against the wealthy who finance this war against our children, and also against the legislators who stand on the side of the line with reformers, rather than on the side of our children and public school teachers.
It’s time to strike against them in the language they understand…through the ballot box, through class action lawsuit, through boycott of their products and services. Take away their positions of power, take away their freedom to harm others, and their ability to invest in, and to profit off the misery of others.
It’s time to strike back.
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