Chicago Teachers Union Vows To 'Shut the City Down' During One-Day Strike

[Omaha Steve]

Source: dnainfo

By Ted Cox

DOWNTOWN — The Chicago Teachers Union announced plans Wednesday for a day of action April 1 and basically called for a general strike, asking "all concerned Chicago citizens" to skip work and boycott classrooms.

The union posted a flyer on its website Wednesday asking Chicagoans to "join families, teachers, workers and all those who thirst for justice" to "shut it down."

For an explanation on what that "it" constituted, the union posted an event on its Facebook page asking "all concerned Chicago citizens" to "unite" in "withholding your labor, withholding your dollars, boycotting classrooms, boycotting the Magnificent Mile" and other actions, including protests against Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Bruce Rauner.

The union, however, would not characterize that as a "general strike."

FULL story at link.


The Chicago Teachers Union is pretty much calling for a general strike April 1.

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Read more: https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160309/downtown/chicago-teachers-union-vows-shut-city-down-during-one-day-strike

[LisaM]

1. Every teacher in the country should go on strike.

I was just reading an article on Arizona teachers, who are leaving the state in droves because of a hostile environment, stagnant wages, and proposed cuts (not to mention the nonsense that comprises a school classroom these days).

[MillennialDem]

4. I'm in WI and the state should go on a general strike

[kas125]

2. What really makes me mad is that the Chicago news, whether it's on tv

or in the papers, they never explain to people that messing with teacher's pensions is unconscionable because Illinois teachers aren't allowed to participate in Social Security. They even have to sign a paper that says they won't try to collect their spouse's SS if the spouse dies. Almost nobody knows that and the news doesn't tell people that.

[EllieBC]

3. Then it needs to be shouted from the rooftops!

And I don't understand how they cannot some day get social security. They are paying into it! How is that legal??

[kas125]

6. They don't pay into it, either. I don't live in Illinois, but I live 30 miles away from

Chicago and have friends who are teachers there. When I first heard it, I was confused and looked it up. Evidently, when they first started SS, states had the option of whether to let state employees participate and a lot of them didn't. Most have changed that by now, but there are still a few states where people who are employed by the state can't be part of Social Security and Illinois is one of them. We get our tv from the Chicago stations and there are always news stories about teachers and the state not funding their pensions, but not once have I ever heard them explain it to people. I've commented to news people on FB, I've emailed the news stations, but never heard a thing back from any of them. It's infuriating that they try to make it sound like Chicago teachers are being greedy for wanting the state to fund their pensions when the state is supposedly broke instead of telling people the whole story.

[Feeling the Bern]

5. Solidarity, teaching brothers and sisters!