Members First monthly meeting tomorrow, November 21, 2017, after school at Connie's... Leadership refusing to explain why there is a big rush to make the greatest changes in the CTU Constitution in history...
Have the CTU's leaders (and CORE) gone too far, exhibiting an arrogance of power? Despite massive propaganda demanding that the CTU members approve their proposed revisions to the union's Constitution and By-Laws, the CTU officers (including above Vice President Jesse Sharkey, President Karen Lewis, and Financial Secretary Maria Moreno) have been unable to get the union's school delegates to agree to the changes. Among the most controversial of those changes are a proposal to bring Chicago's charter school teachers into the CTU, a proposal to begin to call the CTU a so-called "social justice union," and a tiny revision to the duties of the President that would give the President dictatorial powers to interpret his powers without consulting or seeking subsequent approval from the delegates or members. Union members who are now realizing that the contract pushed through by the union's leaders in October and November 2016 is the worst in CTU history have become more and more skeptical about the claims made by the union's officers and some of the union's staff.The monthly meeting of the "Members First" group within the Chicago Teachers Union will take place tomorrow, November 21, 2017, at Connie's Pizza after school. As usual the group will be discussing some of the issues that have been raised since a quorum call abruptly ended the November Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates meeting before there was a vote on the massive changes being proposed by the CTU leadership in the union's Constitution and By-Laws.
Since the House of Delegates meeting, a growing number of union members have been demanding to know why the union officers and a faction of the Executive Board are trying to railroad through a massive number of individual changes in the union's basic Constitution and By-Laws (by far, the biggest changes at one time in history). Although most of the focus during the debate at the November HOD meeting was on the proposal to bring Chicago's charter school union members into the CTU, other proposed changes would make the CTU a so-called "social justice union" (whatever that means) and give the union President dictatorial powers to do things without consulting the House of Delegates. In total, the document given to the delegates (including this reporter) at the November meeting was 54 pages long and included a dozen significant changes to the Constitution and By-Laws.
Many of these things, Substance is told, will be discussed at Members First:
MEMBERS FIRST MONTHLY MEETING
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21 AT 5:30 PM
Connie's Pizza
2373 South Archer Avenue
Chicago, IL 60616
