This past week Governor Pritzker signed legislation expanding the bargaining rights of the Chicago Teachers Union.
It was a big win, the first significant victory in the fight for expanded collective bargaining rights since the Illinois legislature’s phony 1995 reforms under Governor Jim Edgar.
That year the legislature and Edgar, with the support of the state’s teacher unions, created the disastrous pension ramp which led to the current pension debt crisis.
It also limited the subjects of mandatory bargaining between the Chicago School Board and the union and solidified Mayor Daley’s mayoral control of the school board.
Mandatory subjects of bargaining must be negotiated and can be the subject of CONTINUE READING: Governor Pritzker signs legislation expanding teachers’ bargaining rights. – Fred Klonsky