Teachers Union Accuses CPS Of Trying To Sandbag Strike Authorization Vote

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 8, 2012 8:20PM

Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard (Chuck Sudo/Chicagoist)

It's Day Three of the Chicago Teachers Union's strike authorization vote and spokeswoman Stephanie Gadlin said so far half of the 25,000 strong union had cast votes. Gadlin told the Sun-Times the union is "well pleased with what we are seeing" and that a result could be announced as early as next week.

As we've noted before, 75 percent of a teachers union's total membership must vote to authorize a strike under the education reform law passed last year. CTU said last week they would hold the vote and count the votes for as long as necessary to achieve a "clear result."

Meanwhile, CTU filed a complaint with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board accusing an email sent by Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard of attempting to coerce teachers into voting against a strike authorization. In the email, Brizard said there's “there is no need to rush to vote now,’’ and they could still hold the vote in August after the three-person fact-finding panel currently working on a report recommending terms of settlement of the current labor contract releases the results of that report in mid-July.

Brizard previously stated that CTU's decision to hold the vote was "disingenuous" and that he had no idea what the union was voting on. CTU president Karen Lewis countered by saying the union was tired of dealing in bad faith with the school board on issues ranging from CPS' decision to open up to 60 more charter school in the next five years to rescinding a 4 percent pay raise last year.