Steve Diamond writes:
“The much heralded leaders of the CTU and the most public faces of the strike - "social justice" ideologue Karen Lewis and ISO activist Jesse Sharkey - were heavily criticized by their own rank and file caucus members for agreeing to those changes. In These Times reporter David Moberg offered up the specious excuse that they were bamboozled by those wily state legislators in Springfield. But at least one of those legislators spoke up against the law saying it was tantamount to union-busting.” The fact of the matter is that Karen did get played in Springfield. She is a chemistry teacher, not a professional lobbyist or litigator. She made an enormous mistake by at first supporting SB7. The head of Illinois Education Association (IEA) and Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) also supported SB7 and influenced Lewis to support it as well. Here is the infamous video where Jonah Edelman brags about having outmaneuvered Lewis in the SB7 negotiations. Pay special attention around minute 8 where Edelman talks about state legislators and IEA leaders who were putting pressure on CTU. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kog8g9sTDSo Sharkey did not speak in favor of SB7. This little screed from the sectarian groupuscle League for Revolutionary Party admits as much when it says Sharkey was silent on SB7. http://www.lrp-cofi.org/pdf/ctu_052111.pdf Supporting SB7 was a serious mistake. However those who are now taking pot shots at CORE/CTU never admit that even if Karen Lewis consistently opposed SB7, the bill would have passed anyway. Also, by winning the 75% of all membership strike vote and holding together a strike for 7 instructional days the CORE/CTU leadership has shown through concrete action that it opposes SB7 and fights for public education. If, as you claim, Lewis and Sharkey, genuinely support SB7, then why did they organize and run a strike??? The highlights of the CTU contract campaign include: 1) Overcoming the SB7 75% membership strike vote threshold 2) Getting a favorable arbitrator's report 3) Getting 25K on the picket line with a miniscule % of scabs 4) Doing the work to get 2/3rd of CPS parent support 5) Pushing issues that connect teacher working conditions with student learning conditions 6) Getting some kind of recall language 7) Pushing the % of evaluation for high stakes testing as low as allowed by law. The victory of CTU is a win for the organizing model of unionism, a significant win for labor in Chicago, and the most important development in the defense of inclusive public education in Chicago since Daley "took over" CPS in '95. Sean
_______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
