CTU Says 18,000 Attended Labor Day Rally
By Chuck Sudo in News on Sep 4, 2012 2:40PM
With a Sept. 10 strike date looming, the Chicago Teachers Union, parents and other labor groups took to Daley Plaza on Labor Day for a solidarity rally in support of CTU in its negotiations for a new labor contract with Chicago Public Schools.
CTU said 18,000 people filled Daley Plaza on a hot, muggy day, clad in red shirts, chanting pro-labor slogans and marching around City Hall and CPS offices on South Clark Street. It was an ideal opportunity for CTU to lay out what they’re fighting for in labor negotiations that have become untenable and personal.
CTU president Karen Lewis took the stage during the rally to reinforce why the union set the strike date next Monday, which would be the second week of school for CPS students across the city. Lewis called the ongoing negotiations “a fight for the very soul of public education — not only in Chicago, but everywhere.”
Lewis also tore into Mayor Rahm Emanuel, calling him a “liar and a bully” and that “the best way to beat a bully is to stand up to him.”Emanuel, who is in Charlotte, NC for the Democratic National Convention, is expected to return to Chicago early in order to avoid the first teachers strike in Chicago in 25 years.