Wells Hall Off Topic Board

I know it's hard but stop being a doucher for a minute. They voted to authorize a strike. Pretty much standard operating procedure for labor negotiations. It's their only bargaining chip.

That is not standard operating procedure. First you negotiate then if the deal is not cut then you can go to arbitration and an authorizing a strike is a last resort. They went there first in an effort t o strong arm the city. Its thug union politics at its worst. Makes you wonder why anybody supports public unions anymore. Who makes 100k in pay and benefits and works 9 month out the year..and is accountable to no one for how crappy a job they do. Then demands a 30% raising an the midst of a recession and city shortfall of funds of 600 million. This is demm run city and is really shows.

Jeesus what a joke the unions are..... This is basically the unions being scared shitless that what happened in Wisy will happen here...

Emanuel ignored reporters' questions Monday about the strike authorization. Emanuel spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton said the public schools cannot afford a strike.

"At a time when our graduation rates and college enrollments are at record highs — two successes in which our teachers played an integral role — we cannot halt the momentum with a strike," she said. "Our teachers deserve a raise, but our kids don't deserve a strike and taxpayers cannot afford to pay for 30 percent raises."

The district has proposed a five-year deal that guarantees teachers a 2 percent pay raise in the first year and lengthens by 10 percent the amount of time teachers must spend at school, from 7 hours to 7 hours and 40 minutes. The union wants a two-year deal that reduces class size and calls for teachers to receive a 24 percent pay raise in the first year and a 5 percent pay raise in the second year.

Chicago public school students have the shortest school day — 5 hours and 45 minutes — among the nation's 50 largest districts, according to a 2007 report from the National Council on Teacher Quality — part of the reason Emanuel moved to lengthen it.

But the Chicago Teachers Union said that report did not track actual classroom time and insisted the amount of instruction time was on par with other districts.

No....actually it is standard operating procedure....unions will often have an authorization vote prior to negotiations even beginning.

It does not mean that if their stated demands are not met in full they will strike.

It's one part formality and one part negotiation posturing.

You can argue that it's not appropriate, but you can't argue that it's uncommon.

So lets just give one of the best paid school teachers in the nation a 30% raise over 2 years..when they make on AVERAGE $76K/yr plus cushy benefits and pensions. Then let them continue to produce one of the nations worst results and dropout rates. Sounds like a sound plan there.

They are teachers pumping our some of the nations lowest graduation rates. They should be making neurosurgeon/CEO type money and have their summer off to enjoy it all. Strike and occupy!

Teachers want to make more money!? *gasp* the horror.

Bob lives in East Lansing. He's the creepy guy sitting on the bench oogling the freshman asking them if they need help getting back to their dorm.

Well, can we agree that it should be merit based in terms of giving out raises....?

We can afford to pay them, but why would you pay more for terrible results?

Rahm has been doing a nice job. He realizes that big cost-cutting is needed to get the city finances in order. Unfortunately some assclowns (cough cough CTU cough cough) don't seem to understand this.

I wonder what would happen if Rahm proposed to the teachers thaty they could easily give themselves a raise.... simply quit the union and kep their dues.....