In a union election that had implications beyond Chicago, Karen Lewis and CORE were easily reelected yesterday. Preliminary results show that CORE received about 80% of the vote in yesterday's Chicago Teachers Union election.
Congratulations!
George Schmidt's Substance provides the numbers. It looks as though the turnout was much better than the 20% among active teachers we had here in NYC's recent UFT election. (Based on what Substance said, it was around 60%.)
Chicago teachers walked the walk by going on strike last year. Now they have given an overwhelming mandate for the leadership that led them out on the picket lines.
If only this Chicago fire could spread. Hey, why not?
Retirees don't vote in Chicago union elections. Interesting that the much more militant Lewis gets 80% with much higher turnout without retirees while Unity gets pretty much the same numbers with retirees. Calculate the % Lewis gets of working union members - looks like close to 50% vs Mulgrew - 12%.
ReplyDeleteI was going to ask that question about the retirees in chicago.
ReplyDeleteIt is impressive to see how active the CTU members are in voting when union elections are up.
We need to get more UFT members to be as active in union elections as they are in Chicago.
Apathy and not voting in union elections will maintain the status quo.
Don't get fooled that if we just get more people active we can compensate for the retirees -- which should be topping the active teacher totals by next election to win an election. That cannot happen until half the schools at least have turned anti-Unity -- and not just to vote but as somewhat active opposition members.
ReplyDeleteIt will take a battle inside the UFT to force changes, school by school, district by district. One step is to get enough people at a district level and take control of those meetings from the dist rep. That happened in the Manhattan HS district from 1990-2000 and made a difference. They elected a non-Unity Dist rep which is why Randi killed that election. It just didn't happen anywhere else and New Action which could have spearheaded something was perfectly content to have their little 6 or 7 seats on the ex bd - which Randi exploited when she bought them off in 2003.
What could New Action have done in 2000?
ReplyDeleteWay to go Chicago teachers.
ReplyDeleteNew Action won the high schools in every election from 1991 through 2001 except for 1993. Their entire focus seemed to be on making sure to hold those seats -- a variation of the Randi "stool at the table" theory -- they gave up on trying to expand and organize in any other division. But even in the high schools they were helped by Bruce Markens beign the only non-Unity Dist Rep in Manhattan HS for a decade and once he retired Randi undermined his base -- even now some of his most active supporters are connected with Unity -- people don't give Randi enough credit for how she thoroughly dismantled the opposition by offering New Action the "guarantee" of those high school seats. Now they only have 3 out of 7 HS but were given 7 at large seats.
ReplyDeleteWHat could NA done in 2000? Organize -- I don't remember general meetings that were advertized -- they existed as a top-down Ex Bd only. I did go to one of NA EX bd meetings when James invited me as a guest and that was very enlightening as to how they operate.
Lewis is a Member of the "Progressive Caucus". The national version of Unity. Come to think of it, I believe good old Norm is also a member. Small M.
ReplyDeleteObviously from a Unity insider slug. Yes I am and so is karen. I am there to watch you slugs operate. Karen is there because Randi and crew cannot afford to not have Chicago represented on the AFT Ex Bd. Did you know that Randi tried to force the entire CORE delegation to join Progressive but only 2 joined. If we get to LA I would urge everyone to join Progressive and challenge the Unity bullshit from the inside. If I'm there and can join I will enjoy watching you slugs try to kill debate like you do at the DA.
ReplyDelete