The CTU rallies for a contract and a lot more
Gala M. Pierce reports from a rally called by the Chicago Teachers Union to prove that teachers and their supporters are ready for another fight against Rahm Emanuel.
Chicago teachers and their supporters rally for a fair contract and a just Chicago
NO SUPERMAN will swoop down to save the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). But thousands of spirited, red-shirted Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) members and their supporters were in the streets to make their defense of public education at the CTU's Rally for a Fair Contract and a Just Chicago June 9.
Educator and organizer Tara Stamps, who forced a runoff election in the 37th Ward aldermanic race in city elections earlier this year, said the community has to stand up and fight not just for teachers, who are facing demands for a pay cut of as much as 10 percent in their looming contract battle, but for all public-sector jobs and services.
"You might as well put on your cape," Stamps said in a passionate speech near the close of the rally, after a march from the James R. Thompson Center down the LaSalle Street financial corridor to the Chicago Board of Trade building. "This is not a CTU fight, this is a public employees' fight...This is bigger than a contract: This means war!"
Stamps asked the crowd to repeat her words, and each time, a loud "I declare war!" echoed down the canyon of buildings.
And what was the demonstrators' answer to the city's claim of a $1.1 billion deficit in the CPS budget--which the union has been describing as "broke on purpose"? From CTU President Karen Lewis to the picket signs of individual marchers, the refrain was the same: Tax the rich.
"Make the rich pay their fair share, and if you don't, we'll be back on the streets," said Rhoda Rae Gutierrez, a member of Parents 4 Teachers.
Gutierrez lambasted Mayor Rahm Emanuel and School Board President David Vitale for suggesting a casino to fix the city's fiscal crisis when they constantly gamble away public money through toxic interest-rate swap deals made through Wall Street investment firms--and siphon money out of public funds for tax-increment financing districts.
Instead, Gutierrez advocated for a financial transaction tax for LaSalle Street and a graduated income tax.
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THE RALLY was organized after the Board of Education rebuffed the following CTU demands: a librarian and nurse in every school, limits on standardized testing, enforced class size limits and restorative justice measures to ensure racial justice in a system where the students are overwhelmingly Black and Brown.
The board countered instead by asking that the union pay for pension costs, which would amount to a 7 percent pay cut--plus more for health care costs, which would take another 3 percent bite out of pay.
Ilhan Avcioglu, who teaches history to upperclassmen at Kenwood Academy, agreed that something has to give, and the rich to need pay their fair share. He was most concerned about teachers keeping their jobs, class sizes ballooning and pensions being stolen. "Teachers are doing the best they can under these conditions," Avcioglu said. "The cuts The CTU rallies for a contract and a lot more | SocialistWorker.org: