East St. Louis teacher strike continues. Silence from the board.

UPDATE – 10/9/2015 –

East St. Louis Federation of Teachers available to meet, but the district remains silent

Statement from the East St. Louis Federation of Teachers:

The union bargaining team is available to meet at any time to sit back down at the bargaining table and reach a compromise. The union side has been the only one to call for a meeting. Since the strike began, the district team has not asked us to meet with them. In fact, Superintendent Culver has refused to make any counter offer or new proposal to end the strike. His priority needs to be on a compromise that gets our students back in school. The district team needs to come to the bargaining table with the authority to reach a settlement.

You can now use this link to donate to the East St. Louis Federation of Teachers Strike Fund and take a moment to sign this petition urging the Superintendent to negotiate a fair contract now.

2 thoughts on “East St. Louis teacher strike continues. Silence from the board.”

Back last year when the Waukegan teachers were forced to strike, the Governor, (Quinn) put pressure on the Waukegan board to reach a fair compromise with the teachers. He even sent the chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education, Gery Chico, to personally go to Waukegan to meet both sides and push the school board off of their “no compromise, no negotiation” position. A day later, an agreement was reached, and the month-long strike was over.
What is the new Governor, (Rauner) doing? All of a sudden, many school boards are suddenly taking a “bust the teacher’s unions, no compromise, no negotiation” attitude. Rauner encourages them. He is cheerleading these wealthy school boards and high up administrators to make large roll backs to teacher’s compensation and medical insurance. Rauner would then use that as a blueprint to demand similar cuts to state employees. We need to support the teachers forced out on strike, and hope they can hold out for a fair contract. If any of these school boards succeed in busting a teachers strike, it will encourage other school boards to try the same tactics.