Chicago

Chicago Teachers Union Attempting To Ram Through Tentative Agreement Over Widespread Opposition

November 1, 2019 Kristina Betinis, Wsws.org Resist! Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, Class Struggle, Labor Unions, Strikes, Teachers

On Wednesday night, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) House of Delegates approved a tentative agreement that betrays all the aspirations of the 24,000 teachers who have been on strike for ten days. At an evening meeting of the delegates, comprised of teachers from each of the city’s schools, CTU leaders rammed through a deal that teachers did not have time to read or discuss. The CTU called the meeting at 6:00 pm to review the 41-page agreement and hold two votes, one to accept or reject the agreement and one to continue or end the strike and return to work Thursday.

No Deal Reached As CTU Strike Continues Into Day 12

October 31, 2019 Staff, Unicornriot.ninja Resist! Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, Class Struggle, Strikes, Teachers

Over most of the weekend, CPS (Chicago Public Schools) and the CTU were both more muted in their tone online and to the press. Both sides even suggesting they were close to a deal. That changed Sunday evening when Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot held a press conference where she stated “we are enormously disappointed that CTU cannot simply take yes for an answer.” The mayor was suggesting that the latest CPS proposal says “yes” to all the CTU’s demands. CTU does not see it that way.

How Chicago Teachers Built Power Between Strikes

October 25, 2019 By Sarah Jaffe, Progressive.org Organize! Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, Class Struggle, Strikes

The Chicago Teachers Union’s 2012 strike changed the labor movement in the United States. Not only did it revive the strike—years before the current “wave” of public school walkouts began—but it brought to us a new vocabulary for how to think about public schools, public sector unions, and collective bargaining. Now that CTU is once again striking in 2019, one can see how the ground has shifted. Way back in 2011, as protests rippled around the world and landed in Wisconsin, where public sector workers fought against Scott Walker’s anti-union bill...

Why Are Chicago Teachers Striking Against Mayor Lori Lightfoot? They’ve Been “Lied To” Before.

October 22, 2019 By Kari Lydersen, Inthesetimes.com Resist! Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, Class Struggle, Strikes, Teachers

As a pink sunrise painted the sky on Thursday morning, horns blared seemingly nonstop from semi trucks, commuters’ cars, a concrete mixer and countless other vehicles. They were all supporting members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and SEIU Local 73, which represents school support staff, on the picket line before dawn outside John A. Walsh Elementary School in Chicago’s heavily immigrant Pilsen neighborhood. At schools across the city, teachers and staff waved signs, blew whistles, chanted and cheered to a cacophony of supportive honking from morning traffic.

How To Resolve The Chicago Teachers Strike? Tax The Rich.

October 19, 2019 By Amisha Patel and Nathan Ryan, Inthesetimes.com Resist! Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, Education, Strikes

The past year of bold worker action in Chicago—which included the nation’s first charter school strikes—is now headed towards a crescendo as teachers and support staff prepare to walk off the job on Thursday. Despite the city’s attempt to box negotiations into being just about salary, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is bringing a holistic approach to bargaining to benefit both their members and students. This means bringing common good demands such as affordable housing and sanctuary schools into the contract negotiations...

Chicago Teachers Demand Affordable Housing As Strike Begins

October 18, 2019 By Candice Bernd, Truthout.org Resist! Affordable Housing, Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, Class Struggle, Strikes, Teachers

More than 25,000 members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and about 7,500 support staffers represented by Service Employees International Union Local 73 are walking out of schools in the nation’s third-largest school district today, joining a wave of teacher strikes across the country that began in early 2018. The strike comes on the heels of other teacher strikes in Oakland, Los Angeles, Colorado and Virginia earlier this year, and is CTU’s first since its eight-day strike in 2012, when teachers sought higher wages, fair teacher assessment and job security, among other issues.

What’s At Stake In Chicago Teachers’ Strike: Whether Unions Can Bargain For The Entire Working Class

October 18, 2019 Rebecca Burns, Inthesetimes.com Resist! Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, Class Struggle, Unions

“Solving Chicago’s affordable housing crisis? What’s that got to do with a labor contract for educators?” That’s the question the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board asked last week as the city’s teachers and school support staff inched closer to an October 17 strike date, with little progress made in negotiations for a new contract. A standoff at the bargaining table over the Chicago Teachers Union’s (CTU) package of housing demands dominated the city’s news cycle last week. The union is asking Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to provide housing assistance for new teachers, hire staff members to help students and families in danger of losing housing...

Chicago Teachers Prepare To Strike

October 17, 2019 By Catherine Henchek, Liberationnews.org Resist! Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, Class Struggle, Strikes, Teachers

The Chicago Teachers Union has been working without a contract since June, and 94 percent of members recently voted to authorize a strike. SEIU Local 73, which represents school workers such as special education classroom assistants, school custodians and bus aides, as well as Park District workers are also set to strike on October 17. The last strike of Chicago teachers in 2012 was a major victory for labor and working people in the city, and helped inspire the wave of teacher strikes that has taken place across the US over the past few years.

Fifty Years Of Fred Hampton’s Rainbow Coalition

October 6, 2019 Jacqueline Serrato, Southside Weekly. Organize! Black Panthers, Chicago, Fred Hampton, Rainbow Coalition

On a February afternoon in 1969, Chairman Fred Hampton and his contingent of Illinois Black Panthers went looking for a Puerto Rican kid by the name of Cha-Cha in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. Hampton had just read in the paper that the Young Lords street organization had shut themselves in the 18th District police station—along with the police commander and the media—to protest the ongoing police harassment of Latinx residents. The Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers established themselves on the West Side of Chicago in 1968 and functioned under a ten-point program of self-empowerment and service. Their Oakland, CA founding members were already involved in multiracial movement building through the left-wing and anti-war Peace and Freedom Party.

Chicago Teachers Vote By Wide Margin To Move Toward Strike

October 2, 2019 By Yana Kunichoff, Chalkbeat.org Resist! Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union, Class Struggle, Labor Unions, Strikes, Teachers

Chicago teachers, clinicians and paraprofessional union members voted by a wide margin to authorize a strike, setting the stage for a walkout less than six months into Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s term. Educators could walk out as early as Oct. 7. The union said 94% of its members voted in favor of a walkout. With ballots in from 90% of schools late Thursday night, the vote meets the 75% threshold of support from all active union members required by state law. “This is a clear signal from the members of the Chicago Teachers Union that we need the mayor and the Board of Education to address critical needs across our schools,” said union President Jesse Sharkey.

Chicago Police Compiling Dossiers On People Who Speak At Police Board Meetings

August 12, 2019 Monique Judge, Blackagendareport.com Resist! Chicago, Police, Repression

Why would the Chicago Police Department be running background checks on people who sign up to speak at public meetings of the city’s police disciplinary panel? That is what many people want to know after a public records request conducted by the Chicago Tribune revealed that since January 2018, CPD has collected information on at least 60 people in advance of their speaking at the weekly meetings—a practice that police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed has been going on since at least 2013.

How Chicago Ticket Debt Sends Black Motorists Into Bankruptcy

July 9, 2019 By Melissa Sanchez and Sandhya Kambhampati, Features.propublica.org Educate! Bankruptcy, Chicago, Transportation

MY LAST SUMMER, Laqueanda Reneau felt like she had finally gotten her life on track. A single mother who had gotten pregnant in high school, she supported her family with a series of jobs at coffee shops, restaurants and clothing stores until she landed a position she loved as a community organizer on Chicago’s West Side. At the same time, she was working her way toward a degree in public health at DePaul University. But one large barrier stood in her way: $6,700 in unpaid tickets, late fines and impound fees.

Bombs Made By Chicago Company Killed Gaza Civilians

June 27, 2019 Maureen Clare Murphy, Electronicintifada.net Educate! Bombing, Chicago, Gaza, Israel, US Imperialism

Israel used “bunker buster” bombs made by a US arms company in two attacks on Gaza in which civilians were killed last month. The deadly strikes occurred in intense violence between 4 and 6 May during which 25 Palestinians, half of them civilians, and four civilians in Israel were killed. Remnants of the GBU-39 series guided “small diameter” bomb manufactured by Boeing were found by Human Rights Watch at the site of the Zoroub building in Rafah, southern Gaza. Three civilians were killed in an Israeli attack on the six-story commercial building on 5 May.

Chicago Police Tortured Victims With Electric Shocks, Burns And Beatings

June 25, 2019 Flint Taylor, Blackagendareport.com Educate! Chicago, police brutality, Racism

Just months before we finally settled the Hampton case, Chicago was rocked by a series of fatal shootings of police officers in broad daylight. On February 9, 1982, two uniformed CPD officers, Richard O’Brien and William Fahey, were shot and killed during a routine traffic stop on Chicago’s south side. They had just attended the funeral of a Chicago police officer who had been shot only days before. Two Black men fled the scene in a brown Chevy, and mayor Jane Byrne and her police superintendent, Richard Brzeczek, mandated what would become the most massive manhunt in the City’s history.

Chicago Police Have Serious Problem With Pointing Guns At Children

June 23, 2019 Ruth Milka, Nation of Change. Educate! Chicago, Children, Police violence

A family in Illinois has filed a lawsuit claiming that Chicago police officers used excessive force against an 8-year-old child during a raid on their home. Chicago police arrived at the Wilson family home on March 15th with a search warrant and ordered Dominique Wilson and her three children out of the home at riflepoint. They then handcuffed multiple family members, including 8-year-old Royal Wilson. Royal was handcuffed for 35-40 minutes and suffered bruising to his wrists. The lawsuit claims that not only was excessive force used but that all three children are traumatized at being held at gunpoint and are having trouble sleeping due to nightmares and anxiety. “They made me stand up straight and my hands behind my back, and they had them tight,” Royal told CBS Chicago. “My legs were shaking.”

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