Chicago Teachers Union

Support Education Activist Sarah Chambers

April 16, 2017 Michelle Strater Gunderson, livingindialogue.com Resist! Chicago Teachers Union, Public Education, Teachers, Worker Rights

By Michelle Strater Gunderson for Living in Dialogue. Chicago, IL - If you are fortunate, every once in a while you will meet someone who breathes the fire of justice. In my life Sarah Chambers, a special education teacher from Maria Saucedo School in Chicago, fills that role. Yet, this is the teacher who the Chicago Public Schools suspended last week pending a hearing that could lead to her firing. Sarah is everywhere in Chicago when there is a call to defend children with disabilities. She is the leader of the Chicago Teachers Union Special Education Task Force, the co-chair of the Caucus of Rank and File Educators, a member of the union’s executive board, and a negotiator on our latest bargaining team. So, why would the Chicago Public Schools send her a letter the night before our Spring Break removing her from the classroom?

In Chicago, Teachers And Black Lives Matter Build Bigger Movement

November 3, 2016 Leah Fried, www.labornotes.org Strategize! Black Lives Matter (BLM), Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union

By Leah Fried for Labor Notes - Extracting wins from the boss has never been easy—and union membership hovering at a low 11 percent isn’t making it any easier. But a good way to boost our numbers and power is to partner with people who are organized in other ways, building a broader movement as we build our unions. For several years the Chicago Teachers Union has put incredible effort into building unity—not only among its members, but also with parents and neighborhood groups.

Chicago Teachers Reach Deal To Avert Strike

October 15, 2016 David Moberg, www.inthesetimes.com Resist! Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union

By David Moberg for In These Times - The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) reached a last-minute deal with the Board of Education late Monday night, narrowly averting a strike. "There will be classes in the morning," said CTU President Karen Lewis, announcing the tentative contract agreement. Chicago teachers had planned to strike starting Tuesday in an escalation of their campaign to defend their jobs and improve the education of the students and the communities they serve.

Chicago Teachers To Strike If Mayor Rahm Emanuel Doesn’t Cut New Deal

October 12, 2016 Veronica Graves, www.theroot.com Resist! Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, Strikes

By Veronica Graves for The Root - Leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union say that if a deal is not cut with Mayor Rahm Emanuel on a new contract, then a strike will occur beginning Tuesday morning, USA Today reports. The teachers have been working without a contract for over a year, with the main argument in this dispute involving teacher compensation. The union wants the new deal to include no cuts to benefits, guarantees on job security and an increase in spending on the school district’s students by $200 million. The district has about 380,000 students.

Parents 4 Teachers Statement On CTU Decision To Strike

October 4, 2016 Staff, www.ctunet.com Resist! Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, Strikes

By Staff of Parents 4 Teachers - Chicago teachers’ decision to strike Oct. 11 unless a fair agreement is reached should be a wakeup call for Mayor Rahm Emanuel. It shows that teachers are, once again, ready to fight to protect their profession and their classrooms. This is good news, not bad, for CPS parents. While no one wants a strike—not teachers, not parents—the union and its threat to strike give it leverage against the mayor and his rubberstamp school board few other groups have.

Chicago Teachers’ Strike Is Unlike Any Other In Recent Memory

April 2, 2016 Micah Uetricht, www.news.vice.com Resist! Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, Education, Strikes

By Micah Uetricht for Vice News - Chicago Teachers Union vice president Jesse Sharkey has probably thought long and hard about whether it's a good idea for his union to go on strike Friday; the risks are high. But in hearing him talk about it last week, you couldn't tell. "We are going to strike over things that judges might consider illegal, but we consider moral and right," he said at a public-sector union conference in New York. "There might be judges that disagree with us..." He shrugged. "But we disagree with them."

Chicago Teacher’s Strike Vote: Union Democracy In Action

March 27, 2016 Michelle Strater Gunderson, www.livingindialogue.com Resist! Chicago Teachers Union, Education, Labor Union, Strike, Worker Rights

By Michelle Strater Gunderson for Living in Dialogue. Chicago, IL - I sat in the House of Delegates of the Chicago Teachers Union on Wednesday night waiting to be counted as a yes vote for our April first strike. I was number 39 out of 486. It is not common to be called out individually to vote at our union. Most of our motions are passed through open outcry – we are usually that united. But this night was different. A division of the house was called and voting members of the union were asked to go to opposite ends of the hall in order to physically represent their vote. At the beginning of our debate on whether or not to strike on April 1, I was the first to speak. I called for the strike to be approved by a two-thirds vote – not the usual 50% plus 1 per our union rules. It was imperative that the CTU walk out of the meeting with a super majority yes vote. There is no way to build a successful strike with a divided house.

Fight For $15 To Join Chicago Teachers Union’s April 1 Strike

March 26, 2016 Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz, www.chicagotribune.com Resist! Chicago Teachers Union, Fight for 15, Strikes

By Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz for The Chicago Tribune - Teachers won't be the only ones walking off the job April 1. Fast-food workers organized by the Fight for $15 group plan to join the Chicago Teachers Union's one-day strike, connecting their push for higher wages with school funding. It will be the first time fast-food workers strike at the same time as the teachers, though the organizing groups, part of a coalition of labor and community organizations in the city, have stood together in protests and rallies before.

Chicago Teachers Rally Ahead Of Mass Action

March 13, 2016 Madeline Wensel, www.inthesetimes.com Resist! Austerity, Chicago Teachers Union, Education, General Strike

By Madeline Wensel for In These Times. Activists from across Chicago gathered in downtown Chicago last night at the First United Methodist Church at the Chicago Temple to demonstrate a united front in the face of continuing budget cuts and austerity measures proposed by state and city officials and a potentially impending strike of the Chicago Teachers Union. Organized by the Chicago Teachers Solidarity Campaign, a group of community activists dedicated to supporting the union, many sitting in the pews wore the CTU’s bright red t-shirts. But onstage, representatives from transit workers union ATU 308, AFSCME Council 31, the Black Youth Project (BYP) 100, University Professionals of Illinois Local 4100 and the Chicago Student Union joined CTU President Karen Lewis in calling for solidarity across unions and non-union groups.

Chicago Teachers Union Vows To ‘Shut City Down’ During One-Day Strike

March 10, 2016 Ted Cox, www.dnainfo.com Organize! Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, Education, Strikes

By Ted Cox for DNA Info - DOWNTOWN — The Chicago Teachers Union announced plans Wednesday for a day of action April 1 and basically called for a general strike, asking "all concerned Chicago citizens" to skip work and boycott classrooms. The union posted a flyer on its website Wednesday asking Chicagoans to "join families, teachers, workers and all those who thirst for justice" to "shut it down."

Parents Plan Walk-In To Protest CPS Cuts

February 16, 2016 Stephanie Lulay, www.dnainfo.com Resist! Budget Cuts, Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, Education, Protests

By Stephanie Lulay for DNA Info - NEAR WEST SIDE — Parents, students and teachers will stage walk-ins at two high-profile CPS schools Wednesday. From 7:15-7:45 a.m. Feb. 17, community members will stage a walk-in at Whitney Young Magnet High School, 211 S. Laflin St., and from 7:30-7:45 a.m. Wednesday atAndrew Jackson Language Academy, 1340 W. Harrison St. The walk-ins, two of dozens of walk-ins the Chicago Teachers Union is organizing, aim to protest the latest $120 million in CPS budget cuts, fight for a fair teacher contract and call on CPS officials to find longterm funding solutions.

Chicago Teachers Union Takes Over Downtown In Protest

February 5, 2016 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, Education, Rahm Emanuel, Schools, Teachers

By Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance. he Chicago Teachers Union organized a mass protest of thousands of teachers, students, parents and residents of Chicago. They took over downtown Chicago for the day. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) describes the reasons for the protest writing: The march came two days after Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s handpicked Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Forrest Claypool declared war on public school educators by threatening $100 million in classroom cuts—roughly 1,000 layoffs—and just one day after the CTU withdrew nearly $1 million from Bank of America. Sarah Chambers, one of 16 people arrested for sitting in at Bank of America, said, "Rahm has money for the banks but not for our students, When it’s reached a point where teachers are occupying banks to make their voices heard, it shows that we need an elected school board.”

«1 2 »

Daily movement news and resources