Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Day 5

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Day 5:

Day 5

by Mike Klonsky

"Stand up, sit down. Chicago is a union town!"

Chicago teachers continue to hang tough despite a negative media barrage orchestrated by the mayor and his big-money outside supporters. Hopefully, an agreement will be announced today with the union's House of Delegates scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. Minus some last-minute shenanigans by Vitale, Byrd-Bennett and the rest of Rahm's crew, students could be back in class on Monday.

Yesterday's rally by thousands of strikers at the Hyatt made all the necessary connections between Rahm's hand-picked board, which includes Hyatt billionaire heiress Penny Pritzker, and his union busting policies. A strong case is being made for an end to mayoral control of the schools and for an elected school board.

All this wasn't lost on political analyst Don Rose who called the mayor out for "posing himself as a democratic version of Scott Walker." It wasn't lost nationally on Republican politicians either who also see Rahm as their