Emanuel City Council Floor Leader: CTU Strike Should Create Debate About a Ban

By aaroncynic in News on Sep 20, 2012 3:00PM

Photo by Kate Harnedy

Even though Ald. Patrick O’Connor (40th) said that a “strike is not the end of the world” after Chicago teachers formed picket lines, Mayor Emanuel’s City Council floor leader now believes a strike ban for teachers is a “debate worth having.”

The Sun-Times reports O’Connor said even though a teachers strike isn’t “like police and fire where it impacts public safety,” “it’s worth discussing” a no strike clause because of “the anxiety leading up to the strike and the week they were off - the disruption it caused and the need for government and our constituents to scramble to find ways to keep their children safe.”

Banning teachers from striking is an issue that has come up in several states. CTU attorney Robert Bloch said last year out-of-state organizations came to Illinois to raise the issue, “to make the state “like Wisconsin and limit collective bargaining rights.” “If they were simply to take away the right to strike given all the other restrictions, it would undermine the union’s ability to represent its members,” he added.

O’Connor told the Sun-Times he doubted the Illinois General Assembly would go for such a measure.