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Boss's spy ordered to leave CTU House of Delegates meeting

George N. Schmidt - May 10, 2012

Less than one month after he was convicted in a union court of spying for the boss, former Chicago Teachers Union member Marc Wigler attempted to enter the union's May 9, 2012 House of Delegates meeting at the Operating Engineers Union hall and had to be escorted out of the building by building security. Wigler entered during the rush of more than 700 delegates from across the city and tried to secure a delegate's badge at approximately 4:15 p.m. on the day of the meeting. He was identified by several union members who were familiar with the fact that a few weeks earlier he had been voted out of the union for life by a majority vote of the union's executive board.

Former Chicago Teachers Union member Marc Wigler exits the Operating Engineers union hall on May 9, 2012, after he was told he had to leave because he is no longer a member of the union. A few weeks earlier, the CTU executive board had voted to expel Wigler for life from the union following the discovery that he had been reporting from the House of Delegates meetings by email to executives of the Chicago Public Schools administration. Wigler, a former union staff member, had been serving as a delegate representing "citywide" teachers prior to his expulsion. Substance photo by John Kugler.Wigler had been identified through emails he had sent to Chicago Public Schools labor relations chief Rachel Resnick reporting on the activities during the House of Delegates meetings a few weeks earlier. The emails had been provided to the union in an unrelated matter, and some of them were reports by Wigler to Resnick. After confirming the authenticity of the emails, the executive board was convened in a special meeting and after reviewing the evidence voted to expel Wigler from the union for life, several sources in the leadership confirmed to Substance.

Wigler arrived at the May 9 meeting wearing his red "United Progressive Caucus" tee shirt, and after talking with UPC members leafleting against the leadership outside the union meeting, he went inside accompanied by a friend who was a legitimate delegate. A CTU officer and a CTU sergeant at arms confronted Wigler and informed him that he had no further right to attend union meetings or other functions, and reminded him that his expulsion had been for life. After a brief confrontation, Wigler was escorted out of the union hall by building security. (The CTU holds its month House of Delegates meetings at the Operating Engineers union hall on S. Grove St. near Chicago's Chinatown).

Prior to the confrontation on May 9, union executive board members had asked that the matter not be discussed publicly. Once Wigler attempted his May 9 action, the situation became public information.

Although the boss's spy Marc Wigler tried to cover up his United Progressive Caucus (UPC) tee shirt when he spotted a Substance camera as he was being ejected from the May 9, 2012 meeting, he couldn't also cover the back of the shirt, which proclaims that the UPC (the name of which appears on the front) has been "protecting members' rights" (sic). Above, Wigler leaving the area of the union meeting on May 9, 2012. Substance photo by John Kugler.Under the Constitution and By-Laws of the Chicago Teachers Union, the union has the power to police its own ranks. Union members who violate union ethics can be brought before the executive board and tried. Historically, such trials have rarely taken place. The main times in history when they have taken place have been following strikes, when the union has put on trial all union members who crossed the picket lines. Those people, known as "Scabs" or strikebreakers during the strike, are allowed to explain their behavior and if they wish, to pay a significant fine and reinstate themselves into union membership. Most scabs refuse to repent and remain designated as "SB" on union membership lists forever ("SB" is the computer designation for strikebreaker).

Historically, there have been a few instances where union members have crossed picket lines under extraordinary circumstances. During one lengthy strike during the 1980s, a north side teacher known to Substance at the time was ordered by a circuit court judge to "work" during a strike so that he could continue to pay court-ordered child support payments from an earlier divorce. Immediately after that strike ended, the teacher paid the fine, which was the equivalent to the total amount of money he had been paid while scabbing, and was reinstated in the union. The teacher had been told by the divorce court judge that he could either "work" during the strike and pay the child support or go to jail. It was one of the most unusual examples in CTU history of the complexity of such matters.

Very few scabs have had such legitimate reasons.

Before he was spotted and told to leave the union meeting, Marc Wigler tried to get a delegate's credential from the district supervisors. Substance photo by John Kugler.Wigler eventually left the union building and the sidewalk outside, although he did stop briefly to talk with his colleagues from the "United Progressive Caucus" who had been distributing their monthly leaflet attacking the leadership and again making charges against some members of the union staff. He did not join the UPC people at Connie's Pizza after the meeting, as far as Substance could determine. Substance does not have Wigler's contact information and so was not able to get a response on deadline for this article.

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