Did Edelman really get the IEA to do what it didn’t already want to do? Let’s look.
You might say that, in spite of Jonah Edelman’s bragging about how he manipulated the state’s union leadership, it was they who used him.
In fact, everybody in this story seems to have used, or were thinking they were using somebody else. Madigan, Emanuel, and Edelman were all thinking they were doing it to the other guy. It turns out that who really were got were the teachers of Illinois.
Because back in November, before the table sitting with Stand for Children and Advance Illinois, IEA President Ken Swanson was already ready to move the organization to surrender tenure and seniority rights in exactly the way Senate Bill 7 demands.
Back in October of 2010 Swanson called a meeting, reported here, and presented the IEA Board of Directors with a list of Challenging Questions which mirrored what Edelman would later think was his agenda.
I wrote at the time:
And are our members pleased that our leaders were discussing challenging
Sun-Times jumps in. Edelman’s Republican sponsors. « Fred Klonsky's blog
SUN-TIMES JUMPS IN. EDELMAN’S REPUBLICAN SPONSORS.
The Chicago Sun-Times jumped into the Edelman saga and added some new information.
Their headline: Braggart angers teachers’ union after tough negotiations over reform bill.
Edelman was recruited to Illinois by Bruce Rauner, a Republican venture capitalist and former client of Mayor Rahm Emanuel who helped make Emanuel a millionaire when Emanuel was an investment banker. Because Rauner is
IEA’s Ken Swanson goes bat-sh*t over member’s letter. « Fred Klonsky's blog
IEA’S KEN SWANSON GOES BAT-SH*T OVER MEMBER’S LETTER.
Funny how after a week on national interest in the Edelman affair, all the IEA leadership could muster to explain the Edelman revelations of their incompetence or connivance in the Senate Bill 7 affair is the pathetic press release I posted yesterday.
But let a rank-and-file member raise the issue on the IEA web site and the retiring president, Ken Swanson goes absolutely bat-shit.
Jerry Mulvihill is a leader in my local. He is the former President of our local. And everything he says in his letter