Meanwhile, the CTU in Chicago is Being Assaulted

by Republicans hellbent on breaking the union's back:

The Chicago Board of Education is trying to get legislation (HB 5596) introduced by Illinois State Republican House representatives to allow the school board to to reopen the Chicago Teachers Union contract without the agreement of the union.

The bill seeks to prohibit any educational employee from going on strike during the time when the contract would be opened by the school board because it does not want to fulfill the contractual agreement for salary increases. In addition to the prohibition on striking when the employer breaks the contract for not wanting to pay the negotiated pay raises, there would be significant penalties for striking: the exclusive bargaining agent shall be removed and declared ineligible for representation for 2 years; employer cannot deduct dues for the exclusive bargaining agent for 2 years; fines may be imposed on the bargaining rep and officers.

The pending legislation is even more of an attack on the Chicago Teachers Union than was the Amendatory Act of 1995, which gave Mayor Richard M. Daley dictatorial control over Chicago's schools and barred the Chicago Teachers Union and the Cook County College Teachers Union from several traditional rights. The 1995 legislation was supported by Daley, a large number of Democrats and most Republicans, including then governor Jim Edgar. After it was signed into law, the myth was created that Daley had courageously offered to take over the failing Chicago school system, when in fact that provisions of the 1995 law, including the abolition of the Chicago School Finance Authority and the release of hundreds of millions of dollars in additional money to Chicago's schools, made Daley's first years in power over the schools a walk in the park, when compared with the tight-fisted approach to the schools during the previous 15 years (following the school financial crisis of 1979 - 1982).