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Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates said, “We don’t get to a strike unless we get to an impasse. … [But] we’re a labor union that understands the power of solidarity and the power of work stoppage. … It’s part of the DNA of who we are as an entity, the right to strike. And that is something that I wish for every worker in this country.”
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Of course the parasitic scum of CTU will go on strike. Their primary goals is to not work at all and steal from the taxpayers. But….will it make any difference in the kids education? Only 4 in 10 function at grade level so CTU vermin are a massive 6 in 10 failure. Blow up the entire system and start over without CTU and with School Vouchers for all.
No thanks. Instead they will ask for a 9 percent increase or match CPI, whichever is less. No money will be spent on school vouchers. That money will be spent on public schools. If people want private schools they can pay for it themselves.
Remember
Teacher’s “Work” 180 days a year.
Private Sector really works 240 days a year.
If they get mo’ money does that mean they will start doing their job for a change?? Askin’ for a friend………..
Stacy admitting inflation is out of control and Chicago is too expensive to live. Too funny. There is something she can bargain for, but doesn’t have to guts: residency requirements. Under the Workers Rights Agreement, the residency requirement for any unionized city worker can now be bargained for. Any city ordinance requiring residency is no longer legal and can and should be challenged. There is no requirement that I live next to my school district’s paraprofessional. If Chicago is too expensive for teachers, then advocate for your members live somewhere else. No where else are teachers or safety personnel required… Read more »
excellent point!!! and politically, if she did, every city public sec union would demand equal treatment in 2 seconds flat.
Stacy also claims there’s a labor/teacher at shortage CPS, which waving residency requirement would solve. As well as waving residency requirement for all city pubic sec unions would solve supposed labor shortage.
Also, certain selective enrollment HS already waive residency requirement, like North side College Prep
Yes. Restricting the teaching labor pool to city boundaries is going to cause staffing issues. And, yes, CPS does already have residency exemptions for some teaching positions across the school district.
On the flipside, I’d like to know many suburban teachers live in the city.
Nick, I agree that the residency requirement should be lifted but I seriously doubt doing so will attract more talent to CPS. I know of teachers that live in the city that teach in suburbs. They didn’t choose the suburbs because CPS wouldn’t hire them. These teachers have absolutely no intention of teaching in the CPS system. Now extrapolate that out to teachers that work and live in the suburbs. A much tougher job for less pay. Not very enticing. Also, why would a paraprofessional earning next to minimum wage travel from the suburbs to the city? Have a much… Read more »
“Also, why would a paraprofessional earning next to minimum wage travel from the suburbs to the city?” If that’s the case, how does that paraprofessional currently afford to live in the city? Stacy said it’s too expensive. And that paraprofessional might leave CPS anyway because they’re moving to the burbs. Teacher retention is just as important as teacher recruitment. Residency is a no-cost benefit to the city and one that the bargaining unit probably values in some way. But, like I said, Stacy doesn’t have the guts, nor is she smart enough to bargain for it in a way to… Read more »
“If that’s the case, how does that paraprofessional currently afford to live in the city?” Poor people exist Nick and they can’t afford it with their current wages. Chicago is filled with them. Moving to the suburbs isn’t an option because of transportation issues. If they did move to the suburbs why would they then go back to a low wage job in the city. I’m not following your logic as to how this would retain more employees by allowing them to move further away. Would that low income employee rather have the residency requirement removed so they could move… Read more »
And of course if you have a pulse you can be a substitute teacher, city residency not required. As substitutes fill in for CTU members ever increasing # of days to contractually not be in classroom….i don’t think increasing pay or benefits for substitutes is on stacy’s list of demands…they’re not even on the CTU equity hustle radar gravey train
The best thing for the students of CPS, and their test scores, is a strike!!!
Let Chicago pay for it all of it. Don’t saddle
The rest of the state for this crap.
If the citizens can’t pay then bankrupt it
And start over.
If the union doesn’t like that tough, bring
In the guard to straighten them out.
The” usual gang of idiots “ trying again.
They need the raise badly, have you seen the cost of private schools?
They do not send their kids to a CPS. Nor should anyone else with the kind of money teacher make.
Yea…ok, just close it. This is now blatant extortion.
Normally Increased pay comes with a requirement to have shown increase effort, performance and results. They have done none of this and actually done measurably worse…but again, predictably, they think they deserve a 9% pay increase annually?
Time to say close it – Fire them all – Start over – Change is Here.
I would just love to lock out the CTU – it would be so easy. Within 3 months they would be on their knees.
Well, when you consider the “intelligence” of the average CTU member, I think we’re looking at maybe 3/4 weeks – can’t imagine there’s a bunch of fiscal conservatism among the rank and file…
Evert time I see the brain trust that is the ‘Big Hat Crowd’ in Chicago, I can’t help but belly laugh.
Of course you would. You don’t care about the parents missing time from their job. You don’t care about the students that are doing well in school. Elected leaders that have the power you desire realize they will be quickly replaced if they had your attitude. Ahhh, but you can dream.
Terror strikes in the minds of Chicago parents with the thought of school closures making them, the parents, having to shoulder the weight of having to raise their own children at home during the day. It must be that as the results in the classroom academically do not seem to disturb the parents meaning the main purpose of the schools is simply baby sitting. This poses the question “are teachers really needed or would much lower cost classroom monitors do just as well?”
Absolutely true. School districts are daycare, transportation and food service. in CPS, there isn’t much teaching or learning going on – mostly daycare. Super expensive daycare. Again, time to just end this and close it. Fire them all and start over. Every year the tax payer is blackmailed to pay more. It’s like protection money…pay or else. End this – close it.
Bust this terrorist organization now. School vouchers for all.
How about instead we let them collectively bargain as the will of the Illinois voters decided.
I guess that’s the point, realistically CTU is no longer collectively bargaining with CPS & City of Chicago but with entire state….if anyone can call whats happening ‘collective bargaining’. Won’t all other public sec unions soon be demanding the same?
The state is under no obligation to help out so, no, they are not negotiating with the entire state.
Collectively bargain…for what? Poorer performance? Dumber kids? Crappier test scores? These people are on a race – a race to the top of the pay scale and a race to the bottom of the performance scale. Close it and start again.
The only way this would make any sense, is if the deal included REAL measurable performance requirements and results (Measured by an outside independent 3rd party – NOT educators and certainly NOT internally).
Reward has to be tied to performance. Otherwise wasting time “negotiating” with these people for more cost and lower performance is just stupid.
They are free to negotiate for pay increase regardless of your opinion of them. Are you a school board member? No? Then you don’t decide their effectiveness or value. Your opinion mattered when you voted for mayor or when you finally get to vote directly for the school board.
If the city wants their labor they will need to come to an agreement. You don’t get to just offer up a take it or leave it offer and expect teachers to go along with it.
Only 4 in 10 kids function at grade level. There is systemic failure with CTU and CPS; it can never be reformed. Bust the entire machine and start over or…….how about a little competition and school vouchers for all?
The power of competition is awesome,just try it; good schools will thrive, and bad schools will close.
Would lavishing gigantic $payday$ on CTU by Springfield with state taxpayer $bucks$ set bad precedent for all the other teachers in +600 school districts wanting the same $deal$?…what’s JB to do
Once again, Stacy keeps calling for a “fully funded” CPS, whatever that means. But how many of their crazy demands are included in State Funding Formula (9% raises? housing for teachers & students?, librarians & social workers?)? If the state taxpayers cave to funding all this crazy, aren’t all the other +600 school districts/ teachers going to demand the same?
Since, CTU won right to collectively bargaine over virtually ANYTHING. And then if state tax $ start paying for any or all the CTU ANYTHING demands, then in a flash all the other teachers in +600 school districts are going to demand state pay for their ANYTHING demands as well…..(i.e. housing subsidies for teachers statewide, etc, for example)
The state has always been able to cover additional spending for any district. That’s not new.
But has state ever covered collective bargained items outside normal –pay, benefits, working conditions that CTU won right to strike over and are now demanding? If, for example, CTU wins some kind of housing subsidies for its ‘un-housed’ students and the state agrees to pay for. In a flash all other teachers unions in +600 districts as well as all other public sec unions will be demanding similar treatment from state.
CTU is not negotiating with the state.
Nothing in the enshrined collectively bargained rights requires the state to pay for anything if they don’t agree to it. The city can agree but that doesn’t require the state to provide the funding.
Come on, CTUs lobbying in Springfield 24/7 for all their crazy demands
That’s called free speech. Nothing requires the state to agree to any of those terms. You keep pretending their constitutional right to bargain has somehow put the state on the hook for the costs. That’s just simply untrue.
Sure 9% pay raises but the Chicago school year is also increased by 9%.
Seems fair to me.
A real negotiation with CTU would require them to show the cuts for their increase.
In the past they have outlined where they would like additional taxes to cover their wish list of spending items. They don’t want cuts so not sure why they would offer those up. That’s up to the mayor and CPS to decide where to cut if they don’t raise taxes.