Rahm Emanuel asks principals to spy on teachers and report union activity

[HiPointDem]

There's a man going round taking names
There's a man going 'round taking names
There's a man going 'round taking names
He's been taking my father's name
an' he left my heart in vain
there's a man going 'round taking names

-- Leadbelly


By asking CPS principals to spy on their own teachers and report "lawful" union activity back to the central office, Rahm and Brizard have taken their anti-teacher, anti-union crusade to a whole new level.

By doing it openly, in the form of a "confidential" memo, which they must have known would be leaked by union-friendly principals, the pair have sabotaged any possibility of trust between school leaders and their staffs as the school year opens.

They have also made it clear that instead of bargaining with the CTU in good faith to try and reach a fair settlement and avoid a strike, the pair have instead decided to wage a campaign of intimidation. It's nothing less than an open declaration of war on the CTU.

CTU leaders plan to brief the union’s House of Delegates this Wednesday on what they are calling intransigent negotiations on the part of CPS— and possibly ask for issuance of a 10-day notice of intent to strike.

(Superintendent) Brizard's memo more or less redefines the role of school principal from instructional leader anti-union spy. Brizard has already put in place “performance contracts” for principals, setting specific goals in areas such as “effective school organization." I guess we now know what that means to the folks downtown.

A report in today's Sun-Times indicates that Rahm/Brizard are preparing to use CPS' 15,000 non-teaching employees as scabs in the event of a strike.

When I asked one south-side principal about the memo, he responded, "are they out of their fu**king minds?"

http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/


CHICAGO— A confidential email recently obtained by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) encourages principals to closely monitor school employees for union activity. All Union activity is protected under federal and state law. The communication was written and distributed by Chicago Public School officials as a precursor to a strike.

This communication is equally troubling because today, as CTU members conducted informational picketing outside various schools, some principals threatened to discipline employees as instructed by CPS’ legal department, according to CTU organizers who spoke with those school administrators.

The disturbing CPS directive instructs principals to report what CPS perceives as Union related activities “via E-Verify” and report the action as a “Harassment/Threat type incident.”

It also reads: “We are asking you to report any activities that cause a disruption to the school day. Examples of such activity cited in the email include the following:

- Slowdowns of work
- Temporary or intermittent walk-outs or sit-downs
- Refusals to perform assigned duties
- “Sick outs” or other abuse of sick days
- “work to rule” actions where employees perform duties in accordance with the expired collective bargaining agreement
- Other job actions that undermine supervisory authority and deleteriously affect the mission and goals of the Chicago public school system…”

CTU President Karen GJ Lewis said, “I am highly disturbed by the contents of this email. We have been very open and honest about these negotiations and our efforts to prepare our members and the public for a potential strike. Chief among my concerns is what CPS plans to do with the information and how the database will be used. This directive could lead to intimidation of our public school educators, who are fighting for their voices to be heard,” she added.

http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/

[Zalatix]

1. Non-teaching scabs? Are these people even qualified to teach?

What a joke. He'll collapse his whole school system trying that.

[knitter4democracy]

11. Nope. They're parapros.

In my state, all a person needs to be a parapro is an associate's degree and to pass a background check. Now, many parapros are actually out-of-work teachers, so some can teach, but I'm betting most can't.

That's a horrible decision and will damage the students far more than just shutting down the schools would.

[coalition_unwilling]

2. STRIKE! STRIKE! STRIKE! And Fuck Rahm Emmanuel and his Junta - n/t

[limpyhobbler]

3. Sounds like some borderline illegal intimidation tactics. nt

[Egalitarian Thug]

4. Former investment banker, Rahm Emanuel.

What else do you need to know?

Go Blue!

[HiPointDem]

5. Son of a terrorist (Irgun) that did the King David Hotel bombing that killed 91 people.

[blkmusclmachine]

6. Now that Rahm is out of DC, he can jettison his boss' phony bipartisanship:

This is what's really under the mask.

[fasttense]

7. What a little right wing tool Rahm Emanuel turned out to be.

Why does he bother calling himself a democrat? He's so RepubliCON, he probably ties his pets to the roof of his car. I never liked the man. As Obama's Chief of Staff, he made sure every liberal thing Obama talked about was water down and useless.

I suspect his anti-Union, forced labor (Because if you wont allow people to walk off the job in a strike, what else is it but forced labor?) attitude is shared by many pretend Democrats.

[secondwind]

8. Not a fan, but could this behavior have anything to do with financial difficulties? Just

sayin'.

[HiPointDem]

9. whose? i doubt it has anything to do with rahm's.

[midnight]

10. Chicago is south of us here in Wisconsin, but this sounds so Scott Walker....

[Capt. Obvious]

12. For this outrage he should be relegated

to an earlier speaking slot at the DNC

[Wilms]

13. .