Three years after their nine-day strike that humiliated Emanuel and won national headlines for the idea of teachers fighting for students, the new attack on pay and pensions is angering teachers, paraprofessionals, and clinicians.
In the first round, Stamps and Sadlowski Garza were double-digits behind the incumbents in their respective wards: Emma Mitts in the 37th Ward and John Pope in the 10th Ward. But they say the fact that Garcia forced Emanuel into a runoff increases the energy around the elections and, with luck, drives more people to the polls.
While money poured into the recent mayoral and aldermanic elections, voters showed that they are tired of business as usual. Chicago has been portrayed internationally as a symbol of the growing chasm between America's haves and have-nots, the 1% and the 99%, a "tale of two cities." The concept worth contemplating now is that Chuy García could actually win. It would be a story for the ages.
While money poured into the recent mayoral and aldermanic elections, voters showed that they are tired of business as usual. Chicago has been portrayed internationally as a symbol of the growing chasm between America's haves and have-nots, the 1% and the 99%, a "tale of two cities." The concept worth contemplating now is that Chuy García could actually win. It would be a story for the ages.
"Bruce Rauner ran on a platform about nothing," Lewis said Monday at a City Club of Chicago luncheon. "He's wasted no time attacking the wages of working-class people, attacking their labor unions and threatening massive cuts to social service programs, which help the most vulnerable people in our state.
Michael Sneed, Lauren Fitzpatrick and Fran Spielman
Chicago-Sun Times
Lewis has wanted Mayor Rahm Emanuel gone practically since he took office, but she will not be the one to unseat him in February, the head of her mayoral exploratory committee said Monday.
“When the leaders of my city, when the mayor stands proudly and takes credit for closing 54 public schools that are mostly on the South and West Sides of the City of Chicago, there is nothing but a continuation of the decades-long disinvestment in good-quality schools,” Rush said.
Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis specifically said the union is willing to consider reducing benefits for those who still are working, although she emphatically ruled out changes for members who already have retired. But such compromise wont come until the city and the school board agree to contribute more to pensions each year in order to at least partially make up for a contribution shortfall that occurred during much of the past two decades.
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