Palestinian War Dominates HOD Meeting
The Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates Nov. 1 meeting reflected the debate within the Democratic Party about the United States support for Israel and its brutal counter attack on Palestine.
The delegates voted overwhelmingly in support of a letter demanding a Ceasefire in Israel’s assault on Gaza after an Hamas attack killed 1400 people. Israel in return has killed 3,648 children by bombing Palestinians in return, one delegate pointed out.
“The CTU has never been a coward and this is the least we can do,” a high school delegate said. “We’re teachers. If we don’t say something to protect the kids from bombs, then who are we?”
Cameron Delegate Gabe Paez was the most passionate and outspoken teacher rep to describe the horror Palestinian people must endure living in an occupied land that he compared to an open-air prison.
“The Palestinian people are stateless with no legal rights,” he said. “Gaza is a humanitiarian catastrophy. Israel gave the Palestinians 24 hours for one million people to evacuate. This is genocide!”
There were two delegates who spoke against the resolution, including Retired CTU Delegate Lou Pyster who once worked for former CTU President Debbie Lynch.
“I support our President Joe Biden who pledged his support of Israel,” Pyster said. “The ceasefire will only help Hamas.”
Pyster then called for a division of the house in which the delegates then had to stand up to vote. The Resolution passed 154 - 8 to support the Electrical Workers Union request that the CTU sign on to a letter that had three main points: 1. Restore basic rights of people in Gaza, specifically allowing water, fuel, food and other aid. 2. Hostages need to be released immediately. 3. A ceasefire in Gaza.
A few delegates said the resolution didn’t go far enough in condemning Israel. Several unions have signed on to much stronger language that demands ending US aid to Isreal. The US regularly sends Israel almost $3 billion every year and now wants to send an unprecedented $14.3 billion.
The CTU CORE caucus swept the election to fill the Elementary Functional Vice President seats on the Executive Board. Both CORE and REAL passed out flyers before the meeting to elect their candidates and all made speeches to the HOD.
The CTU has invited all of its committee chairs to work on putting together proposals for the next contract. The leadership presented three committee reps to speak to the delegates about their work - the Special Education Committee said their will survey members needs and plan special ed town hall meetings, the Climate Justice Committee said they organized a successful summer Environmental Justice Freedown School and they need to partner with environmental groups in the city. They also mentioned the poor food served in cafeterias. The Bilingual Committee said they will focus on getting more support from the Chicago Public Schools to support the influx of migrant students. The CTU is encouraging members to fill out a contract survey at ctulocal1.org/survey and discuss it at school union meetings.
President Stacy Davis Gates talked about the recent schedule change that had the CTU Facebook page blow up after they decided to turn the first Monday of the Thanksgiving break into a paid PD day so that they could give the teachers who complained a couple more paid days in their checks. Many wrote on FB that they had already made Holiday Travel plans, and the so-called ‘victory’ was nothing more than moving money around from a paid PD at the end of the year.
“No, it’s not perfect,” Gates said. “Give us the benefit of the doubt that we’re not trying to piss you off.”
Gates talked about the big picture of the City where they elected the best labor leader in Mayor Brandon Johnson who got the best paid time off agreement for workers in the country (I’ll add it was great to finally give service workers the minimum salary rather than rely on tips which hurt many in the restaurant business!).
VP Jackson Potter said in his report that Illinois is on the verge to be the first state in the nation to beat back vouchers. He noted that vouchers were first set up in South Caroline in 1956 to fund private schools with taxpayer money so white people did not have to attend schools with black students. The Invest in Kids Illinois voucher scheme is set to sunset at the end of the year and Potter believes they have the votes to make sure it disappears. (I did call my legislators to make sure they know we want no vouchers that benefit rich folks at the expense of our low-income students!) This ugly voucher scheme was mandated by anti-union former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in order to pass the state budget. Go to ctulocal1.org/vouchers to send a message to your elected officials.
Jackson said they met with the United Auto Workers president who told them that their 2012 Teachers Strike helped inspire their current strike.
The two other resolutions passed unanimously at the House meeting included a Teach Indigenous history, homeless awareness, about the migrant crisis, instead of Skyine, on Nov. 15 and Social-Emotional Learning supports for students and staff in times of world conflict.
Chicago teachers can't get kids to read or write at grade level or do the simple math to balance a checkbook register. The teachers union chief Stacy Davis Gates can't seem to remember if she resides in Illinois or Indiana, does approve kids attending private schools for her family but not yours and seems to have forgotten about paying her water bill while making about 300G a year. Now the union wants to sticks its nose into international affairs? What could possibly go wrong?