CPS Mommy Urges Teachers Not to Strike

Today, the Chicago Teachers Union announced that in their strike authorization vote, 98% of the teachers voting and 2% voted against.  This number is out of about 91% of the teachers voting.  You know who else used to get vote results like this?  Sadam Hussein.  I'm just saying, it wasn't until he was overthrown that we learned that the people in Iraq weren't really 100% behind Hussein either.

This strike vote is clearly against the spirit of SB7 -- a law carefully crafted by lobbyists, hedge fund managers, politicians, and other education experts to take away strike votes from the Chicago Teachers Union.  There are a lot of angry people who invested a lot of money in taking away strike rights from the Chicago Teachers Union.

I am not one of these angry people.  I love, love, l-u-v teachers.   In fact, I am in the process of making 26,000 friendship bracelets that I will soon give out to the members of the Chicago Teachers Union signifying that we are all BFFs.  That is how much I love the teachers of Chicago.  I am simply a CPS mommy or at least I hope to be when I have children and move to Chicago. 

What the Chicago Public School teachers don't realize is that they have now given CTU leadership such as recording secretary Michael Brunson the ability to use a strike vote as leverage during contract negotiations.  This leverage could very well lead to a strike.   I am sure teachers didn't realize this.  After all, if they're so smart, why are they teaching?

The vote count was coordinated by financial secretary Kristine Mayle, but what do we really know about Kristine?   As seen in this photograph, Kristine is very short and much closer to the tables where votes are counted than other taller union workers.  In fact, the ABC camera person could barely get 1/4 of Kristine's face in the picture.  It would be very easy for someone of Kristine's stature to reach down and tamper with ballots before a taller person would even realize anything had gone awry.  I don't know who the ministers supervising the count were, but things like Roman Collars and monk's robes obscure the vision and make it very difficult to spot chicanery.

The teachers have allowed Karen Lewis, Jesse Sharkey, Kristine, and Michael to whip them into a frenzy.  They are obviously not thinking clearly or they wouldn't have voted for the strike.   As parents or hopefully future parents we need to set them straight.   Surely, a strike vote like this is too important to leave to 75% or 90% of the teachers.   Shouldn't a strike authorization vote require 100% of the teachers to vote for it?  We need both sides at the table.  If you think so too, we ask you to  text the letters D-O-O-V-E-R to 3-1-1 to let the mayor know that you believe the Chicago Teacher's Union should have to redo the vote.