Chicago teachers to again consider ending strike

Source: AP-Excite

By SOPHIA TAREEN and MICHAEL TARM

CHICAGO (AP) - An angry Mayor Rahm Emanuel's appeal to the courts to end a six-day teachers strike in the nation's third largest city set off a new round of recriminations Monday, but did little to end a walkout that has left parents scrambling and kept 350,000 students out of class.

It might not matter. By the time a Cook County Circuit Court judge considers the issue, the city's teachers might well have voted to end the strike and recommend they agree to a tentative contract that labor and education experts - and even some union leaders elsewhere - called a good deal for the union.

"This was an enormously successful strike (thus far)," said Emily Rosenberg, director of the Labor Education Center at DePaul University in Chicago. "I've never seen solidarity like this among teachers."

The dust-up in court may never move past the 700-page brief filed by city attorneys that contends the strike is an illegal act that presents a danger to the health and safety of the district's students. Judge Peter Flynn set a hearing for Wednesday, a day after the union is set to meet for a second time to discuss an offer than includes pay raises and concessions from the city on the contentious issues of teacher evaluations and job security.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20120917/DA1BQKI82.html

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Smaller, more subdued groups of teachers picket outside Morgan Park High School in Chicago, Monday, Sept. 17, 2012, as a strike by Chicago Teachers Union members heads into its second week. Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he will seek a court order to force the city's teachers back into the classroom. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)