'A victory for the rights of all teachers!'... Judge grants injunction for Chicago Teachers Union in layoffs case, ordering CPS to restore more than 1,000 tenured teachers to working status
U.S. District Judge David Coar has ruled in favor of the Chicago Teachers Union and against the Chicago Board of Education in the case the union filed on behalf of the teachers who were laid off (fired, terminated, etc.) by the Chicago Board of Education during the summer of 2010. The judge's decision, which was issued on October 4, 2010, orders the Board to work out the procedure under which the teachers who were let go will be brought back into status with CPS, and bars the Board from doing something similar in the future.
The judge ruled as follows:
Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis (above left, speaking from podium) led the union to a decisive victory in federal court. On October 4, 2010, U.S. District Judge David H. Coar ruled that the Chicago Board of Education had violated the rights of more than 1,000 teachers fired by the Board since June 2010. Coar ordered the Board to meet with the union to work out how the teachers' rights were to be honored, and also ruled that the Board could not do such a termination in the future. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt."On August 13, 2010, the Teachers Union filed a motion for a preliminary injunction on Counts I and II. In its motion, the Teachers Union seeks an order: (1) directing the Board to rescind the discharges of tenured teachers under the Board’s June 15, 2010 resolution; (2) directing the Board to provide a procedure for review and retention of such teachers under Section 504.2 of the Chicago Public Schools Policy Manual, Appendix H of the parties’ collective bargaining agreement, or some equivalent procedure consistent with the requirements of Mims v. Bd. of Educ. of City of Chi., 523 F.2d 711 (7th Cir. 1975); and (3) preliminarily and permanently enjoining the Board from conducting future layoffs or “honorable discharges” in a similarly unlawful manner.1 On September 15, 2010, the Court held a hearing to simultaneously address the Union’s motion for a preliminary injunction and its ultimate pursuit of a permanent injunction. After considering the parties’ briefs and in-court arguments, the Court grants the Teachers Unionís motion and enters preliminary and permanent injunctions against the Board for the reasons explained below."
The lengthy decision will be posted later in the day.
The meaning of the decision is that the teachers who were let go by CPS during the summer of 2010 must, at the least, be placed in the "reserves" for the 10-month period provided for under Appendix H of the union's current contract.
Comments:
By: True Justice
Teachers Finally Get Respect
I am so glad that the courts did not just let the Chicago Public Schools violate the Laws of this country. This is a huge win for the students of the Chicago Public Schools to get back certified, experienced ,and educated teachers,so they won't have to be educated by substitutes and teachers with short term and emergency certifications. Thank you to the Chicago Teachers Union,Judge Coar, and God for bringing true justice to the students in Chicago. It is also a victory that shows a renewed respect for teachers. I hope all the teachers who were terminated unfairly from their positions get back to work as soon as possible.
By: Kugler
CPS => Criminal Enterprise
CPS General Counsel Pat Rocks says the judge actually called the practice of letting go the worst teachers first “sensible.” Rocks says the ruling demands that the district and union agree on a procedure to allow tenured teachers to compete for existing vacancies.
non-stop lies and deception. All CPS administrators should terminated for violating our rights. All CPS attorneys need to be terminated including Cheryl Colston who invented this injustice against union members.
United States District Judge David H. Coar called on the Chicago Public Schools administration to “rescind the discharges of tenured teachers.”
Here is direct text of conclusion from the ruling what do you read?
CONCLUSION
For the reasons stated above, the Teachers Union’s motion for a preliminary injunction is GRANTED. The Court enters an order: (1) directing the Board to rescind the discharges of tenured teachers under the Board’s June 15, 2010 resolution; (2) directing the Board to promulgate, in consultation with the Teachers Union and after good-faith negotiation, a set of recall rules that complies with 105 ILCS 5/34-18(31) within the next 30 days; and (3)preliminarily and permanently enjoining the Board from conducting future layoffs or “honorable discharges” in a similarly unlawful manner, until such time as the recall rules have been promulgated.
By: Jay Rehak
Happy but stunned
I am very happy to hear the judge did the right thing in this case, but somewhat stunned at the same time. I realize we had the law on our side, I just doubted it would actually be followed. Very happy to have my faith somewhat renewed in the justice system. It would be great if this was the beginning of a throughtful review of the systemic teacher bashing that seems so prevalent in the current political climate.
By: Sarah Loftus
tenure
The media and all the naysayers need to reminded daily WHY we have a teachers union and WHY we need tenure. In Karen Lewis' words,
“Teachers unions were formed in the first place to protect mainly female teachers from retaliatory actions, political firings and crony hirings. "
By: Milton
Court Ruling
Daily and other politicians shout that teachers need to be held accountable, well now Huberman needs to be held accountable for his actions. Daily needs to fire Huberman for the way he “Honorable Discharged” tenure teachers, but he won’t. So the Union should put pressure to have him fired, just like the Chicago Police did with Weis.
By: "Criminal Minds"
Court Ruling
Huberman, board lawyers, and appointed friends which include all borad members should be locked up. They continue to violate contracts and laws of this country because they think their untouchable. They think they don't have to follow the laws of this country because they make their own laws. Other corrupt politicians and leaders are in jail, and these people should join them. They should not have special treatment because they hold higher level positions. These people need to be punish like every other citizens when they violate laws. I hope everyone votes for a Mayor who would at least terminate these criminals from their job duties. These people don't want to listen to parents, students, or teachers. Why are they in the education field. This is not a business, it's education. If they want to make money from cheap labor with the employers getting all the profit like in third world countries, these people need to go into the business world such as real estate or owners of companies. Students Teachers, Parents,and Unions are education. We don't need board lawyers and board members who are a waste of time and too much money. Think of all the money that would be saved if the Board members jobs and board lawyers were eliminated. If the board doesn't violate the laws of this country there will be no need to continue going to court.
By: bob
10
10
Today I am proud to be a member of the CTU. It has been a long time coming.
This time the union leadership did everything right. In my opinion this has always
been the way to go, use the law to our advantage .The board better get use to
a smart union leadership that knows how to use a lawsuit. Also thanks to the
legal team that seems to know what side they are on.
By: The Retired Principal (RP)
Lawsuit
Amen!
By: Law Suit
Law Suit
It is great that CTU won the law suit against CPS on behalf of the fired teachers, however since the judge agreed CPS violated the contract and the teachers rights, teachers should be able to get their jobs back. Teachers should not only be able to compete for jobs that may be vacant, but they should be able to obtain jobs immediately. Why was there no penalty on CPS for violating the contract and laws?
By: Chris
Naive Law Suit
Naive Law Suit. Please read the order in entirety. After reading, read it again, and you will not be so optimistic. Please pay attention to the judge's actual comments about the tenure and appendix H provision.
By: Earl Silbar
The statement that the teachers will get their jobs back
Hype hurts us. The judge did NOT give anyone her/his job back. The order stopped the terminations but did not return one teacher to their position. In fact, after the Board issues new regs, it can terminate them and more.
CPS merely has to come up with regs and even those can be imposed after 30 days of bargaining. Note: bargaining does not suggest any agreement is needed,merely 'good faith negotiations' after which CPS can impose its regs and resume terminations.
This decision is helpful, yes, but won't put one teacher back in her/his classroom by itself. Nothing will until the CTU starts relying on the members and allies to fight the Board. And stops trumpeting false impressions a la Karen Lewis's statement quoted here that " Four hundred thousand students will get their teachers back."
Rose- colored shades are good at the beach, but harmful in serious fights like this.
Earl Silbar
By: Chris
To:Earl
Unfortunately,you are right.We should take under consideration the fact, that our contract is not followed.How about start talking about strike?Talking and voting does not violate the law.Teachers should send a strong signal to the outside world.
Secondly,we should demand to close any kind of "alternative certification programs"and audit all positions to make sure ,that non certified staff is not currently employed. How about the implementation of the Meyers decision?
WE HAVE TO WORK FOR MEMBERS,NOT FEED OURSELVES.
By: Never Give Up
Let's Make History
CPS refuses to accept back illegally fired teachers, and they are planning to appeal the court case won by CTU from what I have recently been reading. CPS asked for more time today from the judge who granted them more time to work things out with CTU regarding teacher firings. I think CPS will lose their appeal and have to pay even more. Teachers, Parents,and Unions need to come together even more aggressively and fight for our rights and childrens' future. We need to make sure there are new leaders in CPS this coming year and restore all jobs lost. We need to take more legal action both in groups and individual court cases. We should never give up the fight to improve our childrens' future.
By: Chris
Injunction-order to stay
Pray,that the CPS is going to lose their appeal.
The current legal actions could cause Union to lose credibility and trust.
At the same time we are observing ,how not qualified people are destroying the public schools system nationwide.
The experienced workforce will disappear,and young teachers will definitely decide to leave the field of education.
How about our kids?They have no choice.They will stay.
By: Rod Estvan
CPS appeal
It seems clear from documents CPS has filed in the case, in particular DEFENDANTS’ MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO STAY ENFORCEMENT OF INJUNCTION PENDING APPEAL BACKGROUND, that their appeal will argue that CPS empolyees have no due process rights in relation to layoffs at all.\r\rCPS in this memorandum writes \"...it is clear that the Illinois legislature did not provide tenured teachers a property right to retention nor did it require the Board to create such a right. Rather, the legislature’s intent was to remove the property rights given to teachers subject to layoff and to give the Board the maximum flexibility to decide whether teachers subject to layoff have any property rights. Additionally, in the 1995 amendments the legislature eliminated the civil service protections given to employees,clarifying that they did not intend the pre-amendment protections given to civil service\remployees to apply to tenured teachers subject to layoff.\"\r\rThe CTU is arguing that the Board and its officers have no statutory authority to carry out any reduction in force except under 105 ILCS 5/34-18(31). That statutory provision required the Board and its officers to issue rules that apply to all the teachers now being dismissed and under these rules to make individualized determinations of the “qualifications, certifications, experience, performance ratings or evaluations and any other factors relating to an employee’s job performance” of all such teachers, as set out in the language of 105 ILCS 5/34-18(31). Under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment the Board and its officers necessarily must issue such rules and provide each affected teacher with an opportunity to be heard as to why such teacher or educator is more qualified and experienced and should be retained in some suitable position as the statute contemplates.\r\rFrom what I can see CPS is attempting ingore existing 7th cir rulings, the existing CTU contract which in Appendix H requires that “tenured teachers with appropriate certifications will be selected for retention based on seniority,” and its own rule 07-1219-PO1.\r\rIf the 7th reaches out and supports the CPS position on legislative intent to to remove the property rights given to teachers subject to layoff and that the CTU contract does not establish such a right in light of legislative intent, then much of contract law for all teachers in Illinois is in question. The basic idea of the four corners rule is that the CTU and CPS intentions should be discerned from the four corners of the contract. The four corners of the contract clearly show layoffs are to take place system wide by seniority.\r\rI am not at all sure the 7th wants to reach out as far as CPS is asking it to in its core argument. Courts like for rules and deals like contracts to be enforced.
Rod Estvan
By: kugler
More to Come
There is more than a lawsuit that is taking place to get our members back to work. I have filed a grievance for every city wide teacher laid off and dismissed this past summer. I plan to have each member that wants a hearing be heard and face the people that illegally terminated their teaching position.
In addition there are many more complaints and actions that will be targeting those that made these illicit decisions that violated our members' rights and dignity.
By: Milton
Court Ruling
Kudos to Karen Lewis. We finally have the right leader to fight for our rights. Keep up the good work.