RANDI AND NYSUT ARE PRAISING CHICAGO STRIKE WHILE CTU MEMBERS DEBATE THE SETTLEMENT TERMS

When Randi Weingarten sends an email to AFT activists saluting the gains the Chicago Teachers Union made from striking and NYSUT puts the strike in their weekly Leader Briefing as the lead story, you know the world could be changing. Randi, who never met a giveback she didn't like (see 2005-2006, UFT Contracts for evidence), and the ever cautious NYSUT (let's keep student assessments in teacher evaluations)  are not usually big advocates of strikes. On the other hand, many of the rank and file in Chicago aren't so sure their strike won enough to be worth it.

This is a major portion of Randi's email to e-activists highlighting the wins of the strike:
In 1995, Chicago educators were stripped of their bargaining rights and their voice to affect learning and teaching conditions. The city's students, especially minority and special needs students, lost resources and even some neighborhood schools as a result. Fighting to make up those losses, the Chicago Teachers Union, AFT Local 1, went on strike last month.

Last night, the CTU ended that strike after the last issue—making up instructional days—was resolved. The CTU’s House of Delegates voted to recommend the tentative agreement negotiated with Mayor Lori Lightfoot, which secured historic victories for Chicago students and educators. The new contract includes:

• A nurse assigned to every school.
• A social worker assigned to every school.
• A staffing pipeline: $2.5 million in recruitment and training programs for clinicians, $2 million in tuition and licensure for nurses, increased investments in “grow your own” teacher pipeline programs, and 50 percent tuition reimbursement for English learner and bilingual endorsement programs.
• $35 million annually to reduce overcrowded K-12 classrooms across the district, prioritizing schools serving the most vulnerable students.
• Unprecedented enforcement mechanisms for class size relief.
• A Sports Committee with an annual budget of $5 million (33 percent increase in annual funding) for increases to coaching stipends and new equipment/resources.
• Rescinding (as of July 1, 2019) the January 2019 0.8 percent increase in the healthcare contribution rate; no plan changes to health insurance benefits and reductions in co-pays for mental health services and physical therapy.
• Bank of sick days earned after July 1, 2012, increased from 40 to 244 days.
• Special education individualized education plans will be developed solely by the IEP team; principals will be required to use substitutes or release time to provide adequate time for special education duties to the extent possible; special ed teachers will get common preparation periods with general education teachers where possible; special ed teachers will be the last to be called to cover classes; and a $2.5 million annual fund will be provided to reduce workload for counselors, case managers and clinicians.
• Salaries will increase 16 percent over the life of the contract (17 percent compounded).
• Average PSRP pay will increase nearly 40 percent during the contract term.
• Starting PSRP salaries will increase 5-9 percent depending on grade.
• Veteran teachers (step 14 and above) will receive an additional aggregate $5 million in salary increases ($25 million over five years).

On top of these contract victories, the CTU secured commitments from the governor and legislative leaders to move bills that would restore full bargaining rights to Chicago educators and school support staff. They also committed to an elected school board. One reporter called it a “virtual guarantee.”

Randi traditionally touted concession after concession as victory. I don't recall seeing an email like this after the 2012 Chicago strike or after many others nationally since 2018. This seems different. She is even bragging about the likely end of Mayoral Control of schools in Chicago and probable return to an elected school board.

Onward to New York State United Teachers. I have not seen NYSUT say that much about the waves of teacher strikes spreading across the country. My guess is they fear we would wake up in New York and demand more activist unions. That is why I was pleasantly surprised to see this is the lead story in the weekly NYSUT Leader Briefing:

Nov. 1

Chicago union wins big for educational justice

NYSUT congratulates the Chicago Teachers Union on reaching a successor agreement this week after 15 days on strike. CTU members went back to school today after negotiating a settlement that provides more nurses and counselors and a salary increase. The city and the union agreed to make up five days of student instruction.

The country is changing when it comes to teachers and labor.  The public will support us. It is obviously easier to win that public backing if we are fighting to improve student learning conditions as well as for better wages and benefits. That public support includes cities like Chicago where teachers are already paid a decent middle class salary.

Let's go to Randi again from the AFT News article on the Chicago settlement.
“This historic fight for what students deserve represents a paradigm shift: It wasn’t simply a fight to mitigate the damage of austerity, it was a fight to create the conditions that both students and educators need,” AFT President Randi Weingarten says. “This strike, like so many other fights to fund our future, is about building the political will to strengthen our public schools so all kids have their shot at success.”

In case you are thinking this is too good to be true, among the teachers in Chicago there was real controversy over the deal as covered in Substance and in New York at EdNotes. Here are the minutes of the contract debate in the Chicago House of Delegates from Substance:

Below are brief comments from delegates either supporting or opposing the strike suspension. Note that I do not always hear the names or schools of delegates but I include them when I can.

-Craig Cleave – opposes the resolution as the amount of money allocated for veteran teachers pay is “unacceptable”. Note: veteran teachers are at the top of the pay scale after 14 years and get no annual increase in pay. The proposed TA would allow them to get some extra money, but one delegate computed it to be about $250 per year.

-Fulton School delegate – opposes it as there is not enough in the TA for elementary schools.

-Alison Eichorn from Lindbloom – opposes it. She is the programmer at her school and she knows she will be told to program regular high school classes for 31 students. This is under the trigger and remediation of class size can only come at the request of the teacher AND can only take place if there is enough money left in the pot after the most needy schools are taken care of first.

-An elementary delegate opposes the TA because the class size caps are not real caps and she was concerned over teacher assistants being shared between different teachers.

-Another elementary teacher opposed it due to the lack of guaranteed prep time in the grammar schools

-Ed Hershey from Lindbloom opposes it because the elementary schools didn’t get needed prep time

-The Prosser High delegate said all of his members voted “No” on the TA because there was no definite printed salary schedule, the vet teachers pay was inadequate, and the $35 million for class size remediation was not nearly enough.

-Carlson School opposed it as its 67 members need the prep time

-Frank McDonald from Washington High opposes it because of the vagueness in the information provided about getting the 4.5 law repealed and in getting an elected school board law passed.

-Chris Burns, a high school teacher, supports elementary prep time.

-Delegate Roberts from Brentano School and a BBT member supports the proposal. She feels “…we have some historic wins here…”. She feels Lightfoot will cancel members’ health insurance if the strike goes to Friday. Jesse responded that if insurance is cut off, then COBRA will kick in. He admitted that it is very expensive but that one doesn’t have to pay for it immediately unless one needs to use it right away. When he said that I glanced at the delegate sitting next to me who was 8-9 months pregnant!

-The Brighton Park delegate said her school is about 50/50

-John Pardo from Phillips said his school is split 50/50 over the class size provision.

-Jim Vail from Hammond School opposes having a 5-year contract.

-Karen Soto of Waters School, a BBT member, supports the proposal. She said “we are creating handholds that will take us closer to the next level”.

-The Ray School delegate said her co-workers were 60% against the proposal and wanted more time to look over it.

-Sarah Chambers, a BBT member, pointed to some of the pluses in the contract; the sick day bank extended from 40 to 244 days, the ending of the Khronos system for punching in and out of school, and that there were 23 improvements affecting Special ed.

-A delegate lauded that we didn’t lose anything and philosophized that we shouldn’t expect to get everything.

-The Hawthorne Academy delegate favored the resolution saying “We can be righteous or we can be effective”. She also was concerned that we would lose public support if we stayed out too long.

-Oscar Ortiz was totally in favor of it.

-The Kennedy High delegate said that 80% of the faculty wants to stay out over veteran teachers’ pay, elementary prep time, and no restrictions on the CPS from closing schools.

-LaShawn Wallace, a Para, and BBT member, supported the resolution as it got very good salary increases for PSRPs.

--Roxanne Gonzalez, one of the 9 CTU members arrested the day before, wanted more time to look over the TA.

-A high school delegate said her faculty was 90% opposed to the TA because of the lack of prep time for elementary teachers, and concerns over weaknesses in the CTE programs that have not been addressed.

-The delegate from Back of the Yards College Prep was concerned that we would not be able to sustain our picketing and our strike much longer.

--The Ravenswood School delegate was strongly opposed to the resolution at the start but admitted she was more open to acceptance although she was unclear over the issue of class size remediation.

At this point, Emily Paine, a social worker delegate, called the question, i.e., end debate and then vote on the matter. I voted against her as I always believe that people should have a chance to have there say. My brother, Retiree Delegate Larry Milkowski, voted to support Paine’s motion. He didn’t feel that anything new would be added to the discussion. The motion carried.

As a Retiree delegate I am not allowed to vote on a strike matter but I would have voted to continue the strike. However, the House voted to accept the resolution, 364-242, with 4 abstentions.

A real debate! I am so envious.

It is only a matter of time before a union in NY catches labor militancy fever.  Human rights violating Taylor law fines be damned. I would like it to be teachers in NYC but I don't expect the UFT leadership will lead any real militant struggle. Demand for change needs to come from the rank and file.

For UFT members here, please stop wasting everyone's time complaining anonymously online about the UFT and organize a better union yourselves.  Chicago is different from us in that the CTU is a democratic union while the ruling Unity Caucus (Randi and Mulgrew's party) has an iron grip on our UFT and is more interested in control than any genuine discussion. Our job as dissidents is to spread the word to others that so many teachers around the country are standing up for themselves and achieving real gains for teachers and public schools. I hope I have not yet gone to the great beyond when NYC joins that movement.