Union Democracy and the CTU

Rahm Emanuel is outraged. He thought he made a deal with Karen Lewis, head of the Chicago Teachers’ Union, to end the teachers strike.

But see, Rahm doesn’t understand very much about unions. In a democratic union, the kind of union supposedly liberal commentators say they want when they complain about “union bosses” and such, the members get to VOTE on the union contract. Rahm doesn’t actually like democracy. Authoritarianism is more his speed. So the idea that something he agreed to has to be voted on, well that can’t be!

The CTU is a highly democratic union. It looks like the contract is mostly pretty good for the union–3 year deal rather than the 4 wanted by the city, pay raises, increased staff for the longer school day, and the lowest amount of teacher evaluation by testing allowed by the law (thanks to Arne Duncan for that being in Illinois state law to begin with). But there were a lot of concerns for these teachers. They want to review the contract for themselves and decide what to do. Almost certainly the membership will pass it. Unless Rahm goes through with his threat of an injunction, which could outrage the already empowered teachers to more radical action. If he’s smart, Rahm will let this play out and school will start in a couple of days. Unfortunately, this is Rahm we’re talking about. So who knows. And let’s face it, the idea that Rahm and CPS is basing their injunction on a health and safety danger is pretty funny coming from the same people who threw kids into classrooms without air conditioning during a Chicago summer.