Rahm declares war on Chicago teachers
Chicago teacher Anthony Cappetta and Socialist Worker's Lee Sustar explain how the lines were drawn in the latest battle over public education in the city.
Members of the Chicago Teachers Union rally for a fair contract (Bob Simpson | SW)
FACED WITH the city's threat to lay off 1,000 educators and impose a unilateral 7 percent pay cut, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is mobilizing for a February 4 mass rally in the city's financial district in the union's biggest fight since its successful strike of 2012.
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Forest Claypool made the aggressive move against the teachers after the CTU bargaining team rejected a concessionary contract proposal that would have avoided economic layoffs if the union agreed to bigger pension contributions, higher health care costs and vague contract language around job security.
Claypool--fronting for his boss, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and the city's ruling elite--is trying to create a crisis atmosphere to drive a wedge among union members, and to get parents to blame the teachers' union for the chaos in the classroom that would result from the massive layoffs.
But rank-and-file teachers and their union showed no signs of being intimidated ahead of a February 3 House of Delegates meeting. At the CTU's February 2 press conference, President Karen Lewis called the city's threats an "act of war." She added, "We are certain everyone who works in our public schools is facing a clear and present danger."
The CTU announced that the union will move its money out of Bank of America, the financial institution that has profited most from the toxic interest rate swap dealsnegotiated with CPS, the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois.
Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who is out to gut public-sector collective bargaining laws and slash social spending, is pushing legislation that would allow the state to take over CPS in a bankruptcy-style proceeding.
While the legislation is unlikely to pass Illinois' Democratic-controlled legislature, Rauner is preparing the ground politically to take advantage of a CPS financial meltdown and a resulting political crisis.
And Emanuel, while opposing bankruptcy legislation, could work with Democratic legislators and the governor to create some sort of compromise, such as a revival of theSchool Finance Authority that took direct control of Chicago school spending for 15 years starting in 1980.
For now, the CTU bargaining team's rejection of the proposed offer put the possibility of a strike back on the table. In December, CTU members voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, several months after President Lewis called the city's demands to push pension Rahm declares war on Chicago teachers | SocialistWorker.org:
