Chicago teachers join Elwood IL warehouse workers to confront Walmart
Filed under: Education, Unions
The chants rang out across Vincennes Ave in the Chatham neighborhood of South Side Chicago:
“1-2-3-4 No one should be working poor!
5-6-7-8 Come on Walmart, play it straight!
We’re working families
Under attack
What do we do?
Stand up! Fight back!
There ain’t no power,
Like the power of the people,
Cuz the power of the people won’t stop!”
Striking teachers from the Chicago Teachers Union(CTU) had joined Warehouse Workers for Justice(WWJ) at a rally aimed at Walmart to protest its employee abuses and the dumping of millions of dollars into school privatization efforts. It was the afternoon of Tuesday September 18, only a few hours before the CTU House of Delegates ended the teachers strike. I had come to the rally with a CTU retiree.
Monday’s lesson plan from Chicago
Filed under: Education, Unions
Monday was a long day at the Chicago Teachers Union Strike HQ that began before my 5 am arrival. CTU staffers and volunteers were glued to laptops and cell phones. The sound of staple guns attaching signs to sticks competed with the voices of people reporting on the latest news from the picket lines. There were huddled meetings sharing data and a mass meeting of the strike coordinators that erupted into cheers as the overwhelming success of the strike became clear.
Across the city parents, students and teachers joined together on the picketlines. There were very few scabs and massive participation on the picketlines. In fact it was hard to travel anywhere in Chicago without seeing a picketline. Across the city people were stopping anyone wearing the now well known red t-shirts and asking about the latest news, offering thanks or just wanting to express their opinion, either for or against.
Bus drivers sounded their horns in support along with truck drivers and ordinary motorists. Cops and firefighters made their solidarity known. Working class Chicago was expressing its opinion and by the reports that I heard, the opinion was overwhelming in support of the teachers, even by those who were inconvenienced by the strike. Read more
Spirits were high at the Chicago Teachers Union(CTU) Strike HQ
Filed under: Education, Unions
UPDATE: No agreement was reached between the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union. There will be a strike beginning Monday morning.
I was walking my bike out of the CTA Blue Line stop nearest to the CTU Strike HQ at around 11:15 am Saturday morning when I encountered two Chicago cops standing at the entrance. They noticed my red shirt with the “Stand with the Chicago Teachers Union” emblazoned across the front.
One said, “You must be a teacher.” I replied, “Yeah, I’m headed for the Strike Headquarters to volunteer my services. He answered,”Good luck,” while his partner smiled. I thanked them both and was on my way. It was the first time a Chicago cop had ever wished me well during the entire 36 years I have lived here.
The CTU Strike HQ is in the Teamster Local 705 building
The CTU Strike banner had gone up late Friday afternoon September 7. The CTU had chosen the Teamsters Local 705 building as their Strike HQ because of the easy parking and its quieter, less crowded West Side location. The choice also symbolized the need for organized labor to stick together in solidarity. The Chicago Board of Education and the Chicago Teachers Union are still far apart even though negotiations have been going on for months. Sunday midnight is the strike deadline.
I was at Strike HQ Friday night as a volunteer for the Chicago Teachers Solidarity Campaign (CTSC). The CTSC is an outgrowth of Occupy Chicago and works closely with the CTU to organize community and labor support.
