BREAKING: CTU Might Have 90 Percent for a Strike of Chicago Schools; Obama's Weingarten's Damage Control

Organized labor suffered a demoralizing set-back Tuesday with the failure to recall Scott Walker, the viciously anti-labor governor of Wisconsin.

To its south, the inspiring mobilization of a strike authorization vote.  The Chicago Teachers Union has voted this week on whether to strike.  The media have been variously patronizing or damning.  In some instances, there are glimmers of understanding of what teachers there are facing.
And Chicago Public Schools "CEO" [sic] Jean-Claude Brizzard sent a teacher-bashing letter to homes that got one grandparent considering supporting the teachers' strike. See the grandparent's letter in the Chicago Tribune.  Brizzard criticized teachers for not waiting until a July report has been released.  But he is ignoring the fact that holding a vote in the summer impedes the ability to get a strike vote quorum.
Years of teacher bashing, capped with mayor Rahm Emanuel's demand for a ten percent lengthened school day, without an adequate raise, fueled the climate for a strike vote."He created an incentive for them, the causes and conditions for teachers to mobilize in a way they haven't mobilized before," said Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

(CTU President Karen Lewis casts her ballot.)
BREAKING: NBC reports multiple sources reporting that the CTU has as much as 90 percent of vote-participating teachers voting in support of a strike.  Report at NBC. The state government interfered with union autonomy and forced them to get 75 percent support in order to launch a work stoppage.  "He created an incentive for them, the causes and conditions for teachers to mobilize in a way they haven't mobilized before," said Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

"He created an incentive for them, the causes and conditions for teachers to mobilize in a way they haven't mobilized before," said Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

 --an Associated Press Report at ABC.
After the release of an official vote count on Monday, we will see if the CTU exceeded the required percentage.
UPDATE:
Substance News, the best source of accurate news and analysis of Chicago education news, reports that American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten made a trip to Chicago to publicly praise mayor Emanuel.
Read the quote to the end. It is a classic case of Orwellian double-speak.

"Whether it's the mayor's infrastructure program here in Chicago, or eventually everything else we're doing around the country, is that when labor and business start working good together on trying to put people back to work with good jobs, when we start building things, it builds hope around the country," Weingarten said. ABC News, which quoted her above, reported that "Mayor Emanuel is in a love fest with the American Federation of Teachers today."

What a nasty distortion of reality. As Jim Vail of Substance News says, Weingarten's trip to Chicago was a mission from the President Barack Obama White House, a trip to do damage control on what is a public relations disaster [the Emanuel war on teachers and the teachers' fight-back against Emanuel and Brizzard] for President Obama, a trip to actually extend more support for the 1% than for the working teachers of the city.

Kudos to Vail, for pointing out that Weingarten never taught a full program for a full year in her life.