Labor Beat reruns Chicago Teachers Union 'City Hall' story this week on CAN TV
The CTU and the 2015 City Hall Election, a Labor Beat video, is being rerun the first week of December 2014 on Chicago CAN TV. Readers can get the entire show: Chicago - CAN TV Channel 19, Thursday, Dec. 4, 9:30 pm, Friday, Dec. 5, 4:30 pm, Thursday, Dec. 11, 9:30 pm, Friday, Dec. 12, 4:30 pm. The show also will air on Evanston - Cable Channel 6 (Check for listed times). After the show aired last month, it became evident that more people needed to have access to it. The URL for those who wish to view the story on You Tube is: http://youtu.be/fUDwSzqPAJw
Chicago Teachers Union Executive Board member and CORE leader Tammie Vinson is show above campaigning for alderman of the 28th Ward on Chicago's West Side. A faction within the CTU leadership began the month of December attempting to block a union endorsement of Vinson's candidacy while moving forward with endorsements in other wards of candidates who are not even union members and who are virtually unknown to most of the union's members. Labor Beat photo.Historic, complicated, dramatic. These are some of the adjectives used about the lead-up to Karen Lewis's anticipated run for Chicago mayor against union-buster Rahm Emanuel. And the weeks just after Karen's announced brain cancer and withdrawal from the race bumped all of these adjectives up to another exponential level.
Labor Beat looks at the background, with new and exclusive footage, to the "run Karen run" movement and the sudden turn of events in the Fall of 2014. We show scenes from 'discussions with Karen' in Uptown where she describes her relationship with the Democratic Party; the startling announcement at the L.E.A.D. union dinner on October 31 that Karen was 'passing the torch' to Democrat Chuy Garcia (Cook County Commissioner); our archival footage comparing how mayoral candidate endorsements were democratically done back in 2010; an interview with a delegate just leaving a contentious CTU House of Delegates meeting on Nov. 5 that debated whether to rubber-stamp Karen's abrupt Garcia endorsement.
We also look at certain aldermanic races for the Feb. 2015 city hall election, getting some interviews and speeches from a handful of labor-based independent candidates who have either in their campaigns or to Labor Beat declared that they are neither Democratic or Republican. At the time of the completion of this video, none of these candidates are yet officially on the ballot, as they work to gather specified numbers of validated petition signatures in a difficult process set up by the election commission. (Tammie Vinson, 28th Ward; Jorge Mujica, 25th Ward; Tim Meegan, 33rd Ward; Sue Sadlowski Garza, 10th Ward.)
Another Chicago Teachers Union leader who is still not receiving the recommended endorsement of the union's political action leaders is Ed Hershey, who represents Lindblom High School in the CTU House of Delegates. Despite the fact that the union has endorsed candidates who are not incumbents and who are unknown to most CTU members, a faction in the union leadership continues to deny endorsements to long-time union leaders. Hershy is quoted in the Labor Beat video. Labot Beat photo.A running commentary by labor activist Linda Loew (member of AFSCME 1989) places these developments in perspective: are we seeing in this the seeds of a new political party of labor and its allies, fundamentally breaking from the Democratic Party? Also narrated by the Chicago-area radio voice of Dale Lehman. Can also be viewed on YouTube at: http://youtu.be/fUDwSzqPAJw
Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner, and member of the Evanston Community Media Center. Labor Beat is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat. For info: mail@laborbeat.org, www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat videos, visit YouTube and search "Labor Beat".
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