Socialist Action /June 2001
Chicago Teachers Union Reform Slate
Wins
CHICAGO-In a major victory for area teachers, a
reform slate won a recent election for the Chicago Teachers Union. The reform
slate, Pro-Active Chicago Teachers and School Employees (PACT), won all
officer positions and 39 of 47 executive board seats that represent the
33,000-member union.
PACT ran on a platform calling for more union democracy,
defending the rights of teachers, increases in salary, benefits, and working
conditions, and a promise to "wage a real fight against [management's]
anti-teacher policies."
Teachers in Chicago have been polarized by attacks
on their rights by the Chicago Board of Education. The board, led by Chicago
Public School CEO Paul Vallas, has consistently blamed teachers' performance
for the lackluster state of public schools in Chicago. PACT, on the other
hand, cites lack of funding for inner city schools, overcrowded classrooms,
and low wages and poor working conditions for teachers as the reasons public
schools fail to adequately serve area children.
Part of the board's "reform" plan includes
the ability to fire teachers en masse at high schools not performing up
to standards and privatization of school services, among other anti-teacher
"reforms." PACT focused their campaign on the current union leadership's
collaboration with the board.
President-elect Deborah Lynch-Walsh attacked seven-year
incumbent President Thomas Reece for "acting more like an agent of
management than a guardian of teachers." Reece had often boasted about
his good relationship with management. School chief Vallas had all but endorsed
Reece during the election campaign. The board tried to help Reece's campaign
by voting for a one-time 1 percent lump payment for teachers only weeks
before voting began.
Despite this attempted bribery, Lynch-Walsh won
handily, winning 57 percent of the presidential vote.
- D.B.
Socialist Action /June 2001 |