Illinois & Wisconsin Teacher Union Climate
WHY DO you support the teachers strike in Chicago?
THE MTI Board of Directors voted to support their brothers and sisters of the Chicago Teachers Union not only because of CTU’s support of those protesting Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-public employee legislation in early 2011, but because their strike is over very similar issues.
Like Gov. Walker, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is trying to break the union, trying to defuse their power in bargaining and trying to weaken their political power. In Chicago, the mayor appoints the school board, so the board is responsible to him, not the public. He wants to privatize schools, and one way to justify that is to increase class size so the public schools fail. When they fail, he can move to private, for-profit charter schools.
Mayor Emanuel, like Gov. Walker, is taking the just-cause standard and due process from the Chicago teachers. This would enable termination “just because” he or a school administrator wishes, not because of a just-cause standard that can withstand due process of law.
