Fred Klonsky: Chicago Shows What a Teachers' Union Really Looks Like

(March to Chicago Public Schools [CPS] headquarters after 5,000 strong mass rally)
[The protest rally was in preparation for a coming strike authorization vote.] Fred Klonsky reports today:

(Photo of latest mass rally)

“It’s not like the old days,” IEA President Cinda Klickna said to me in explanation of why the IEA wasn’t doing a very good job of mobilizing members earlier this year, canceling a mass rally in Springfield with the bogus excuse of Capitol construction. Recent attempts to take credit for the local demonstrations at many legislators offices are pretty smelly. Yesterday, the young dynamic leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) took a page from the old days and turned out over 5,000 teachers to a mass rally at the old Auditorium Theater. Then they poured out on to Michigan Avenue and marched on the board of education offices on Clark Street. In a pathetic last minute attempt to undermine the rally, the little Mayor of Chicago whispered at a press conference that, sure, teachers should get a raise. But anyone could see through his sorry ass words. The lesson is one that both the Mayor and other teacher unions must learn. Chicago teachers have become a beacon to teachers everywhere. Watch out! The red shirts are coming.