Chicago Teachers’ Strike: Nervous

Will the delegates of the Chicago Teachers Union vote to end the strike today?

Chicago teachers were anxious this morning as they walked the picket line for the seventh day, worried whether union officials will decide today to call off the strike that has kept 350,000 students out of the classroom.

“I’m hoping the delegates come to their senses and know that our kids need us,” Mary Silva, a CPS social worker, said outside school headquarters.

The Chicago Teachers Union’s House of Delegates is to meet at 3 p.m. to go over a tentative contract reached during marathon negotiations last week. It could decide to end the strike while a ratification vote is taken among teachers in the next few weeks.

I think it’s pretty likely that they will and an editorial in the Washington Post explains why:

“THEY WANT TO know if there is anything more they can get.” That astonishing statement by the head of the Chicago Teachers Union tells you all you need to know about the reason for the continued strike of the city’s public schools. The no-end-in-sight teacher walkout is not about getting schools air-conditioned or lowering class size or any of the other platitudes that have been voiced at teacher rallies about wanting to improve education. It’s about the union thinking it can get “more” — and so what if the interests of tens of thousands of children are hurt in the process?

They’ve flexed their muscles. They’ve put Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in his place. So far they’ve enjoyed a certain amount of public support. That support is unlikely to grow as the days of the strike increase.

1 comment… add one
  • So far they’ve enjoyed a certain amount of public support.

    Simply incredible.

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