CHICAGO, Sept 16: Thousands of striking Chicago teachers rallied to keep the pressure on Mayor Rahm Emanuel to wrap up an agreement with their union to end a strike that closed the nation’s third largest school district for a week.
The rally brought labor leaders, community activists and
Striking teachers to Chicago’s Union Park for one of the largest demonstrations against Emanuel’s education reforms since the strike began on Monday.
Led by Chicago Teachers Union president and former high school chemistry teacher Karen Lewis, 29,000 unionized teachers, counselors, nurses and support staff staged their first strike in 25 years, leaving 350,000 Chicago students out of school.
“You have proven to the world that you’re not going to take it anymore,” Lorretta Johnson, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, told demonstrators the day after the two sides reached a tentative deal to end the strike.
Emanuel angered the Chicago teachers by trying to push through proposals to radically reform their performance evaluations and weaken job protection for those teachers whose schools are closed or perform poorly academically.
The mayor retreated from some of his proposed reforms, although details of what he has agreed to with the union have not been made public.
Many Democratic mayors and politicians have supported Emanuel, a former White House chief of staff for President Barack Obama. Other Democrats have sided with the unions, which are major financial supporters of the party and are needed to help Obama win re-election on Nov. 6.
Emanuel denied that there had been any pressure from the White House to settle the strike.
“The short answer is no,” said his spokeswoman, Sarah Hamilton. “There was no pressure, and no pressure would have worked, because they know that the mayor firmly believes that what we are doing to reform and improve our schools is the right thing.”
The union is wary of Emanuel, whom Lewis has called a “bully” and a “liar.”
Organizers hoped yesterday’s rally would rival some of the huge demonstrations last year against the efforts of Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker to curb the power of unions. The Wisconsin protests were unsuccessful, but drew tens of thousands of government workers, including teachers.
(agencies)
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