As I suggested would happen in the last post, Rahm the Bomb’s mayoral controlled school board, reaping the benefits of the SB7 strike hobbling provisions, have voted to deny union teachers their contractually promised pay raise.
This is what Ken Swanson calls a national model of teacher cooperation.
But now what?
Karen Lewis and the CTU leadership were elected on a platform of militant teacher unionism.
The new Chicago Board of Education selected by Mayor Rahm Emanuel unanimously voted down a scheduled 4 percent raise for Chicago Public Schools teachers Wednesday.
Citing a looming hole in the budget for next year, board members said they did not have a reasonable expectation that the district had the money to fund the raises, which would add up to about $100 million.
The yearly raises are part of the Chicago Teachers Union contract, but they are only enacted if the board agrees the district can afford them.
Board president David Vitale said layoffs could still occur.
Fred Klonsky 
Please explain why my reasoning is in error.
Don’t fall into Rahm’s trap. I think he wants to reopen contract negotiations so he can continue with his agenda to privatize the entire system. I don’t like the fact that our contract has been rescinded. I also don’t like the fact that I was promised $3,000 a year for 10 years to become a nationally board certified teacher and then had that payment cease after just one year. But I believe Rahm wants to do a Reagan à la the air traffic controllers’ strike and show everyone who is boss. Also if we reopen negotiations because of the recently passed law it will take forever for a strike vote to happen meaning he will get even more than the forfeited 4% raise in 10 weeks when school starts. Instead let’s keep the state from taking away our pension, and let’s begin the next round of contract talks which will coincide with the next presidential election. If democrats can’t demonstrate why we should support them then they should look elsewhere for votes in 2012!
If Rahm can rip up the contract when it comes to bargained salary increases, what else in the contract can be ripped up? The bargained agreement becomes meaningless.