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Stewart’s All Empowering

Constitution Amendment

Passes by a Narrow 1500 votes

 By a small 1500 vote margin, the Chicago Teachers Union has passed a Constitution amendment that enables the president to easily eliminate any officer detractors.  The president can now put an officer of her choosing out of office on any trumped up charge by the rubber stamp of her hand picked Executive Board. Read more

Letter from all CTU Caucuses to the  CTU President

September 30, 2009

Dear President Stewart:

We, the undersigned, have come together to raise our collective voices in protest at the disregard for democracy that culminated in the threatened arrest of CTU members for distributing flyers at the September meeting of the House of Delegates.

One of the strengths of our Agreement is past practice, a cornerstone of many grievance wins. For 70 years members of the CTU have engaged in the dissemination of political literature at meetings. During our September meeting, members were told that they could not hand out flyers because they were on “private property”. Literature was always available to members at the private property of Bismarck Hotel meetings. The most recent Plumbers Hall facility is the private property of the Plumbers Union and literature was available there. We urge you to stop this unprecedented harassment of CTU members and, if the venue does not “allow” us to distribute literature (which we do not believe is the case), then the contract you signed with them should be considered null and void. Further, parking facilities are inadequate and inaccessible and the logjam due to our brothers and sisters being forced onto the streets could lead to disaster during inclement weather.

The elimination of numbered microphone stations in the hall is the most outrageous occurrence to have taken place. This is in direct violation of the Rules of the House, which were voted on and adopted by the delegates. These rules are enclosed each month on a sheet in every delegate packet. An orderly, fair method for speaking and making motions is imperative to democratic procedure and dictated by Robert’s Rules. It is appalling that delegates have been prevented from speaking and making motions because the chair makes the decision on who will be allowed to speak. This change, which is a deviation from 70 years of past practice, was not voted on by the delegates as part of the Rules of the House of Delegates - it was autocratically initiated by the Chair.

Finally, there has been complete disregard for the time and energy members of the House of Delegates devote to their members and schools who do not belong to your caucus. It is unacceptable that during your tenure, meetings have devolved into two-hour lectures in order to take up time. Our members are under attack by a Board of Education that has no regard for the future of the members whose jobs are lost due to school closings. While it is admirable that other AFT unions are organizing the schools taking the place of those closed, our energies must be directed first and foremost toward protecting the rights of CTU Members.

There are a variety of ways in which these issues should and can be addressed, but the lack of democracy in the House has led to a breach of faith that cannot be healed by your insistent refusal to engage in open and meaningful debate.

We seek the following redress from you:

• Allow the dissemination of literature in the foyer of The Operating Engineers building and stop the threats to our members by off-duty and uniformed police officers;
• Follow the procedure for microphone usage as delineated in the Rules for House of Delegate Meetings and Past Practice;

· Limit the total of all Officers’ Reports to 45 minutes so that Delegates can do the jobs they’ve been elected to do: speak and bring forth policy motions for consideration;