Teachers applying for work are asked questions that go to whether they would stand up against attacks on collective bargaining. The
pdf of the complaint to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board says the questionaire asks
"how the applicant would respond to violations of the collective bargaining agreement."I doubt they would even ask that if they did not intend to do some violating of the collective bargaining agreement. And don't forget this IS Rahm's school board. He has mayoral control, he is in charge of the schools.
From the Chicago Tribune November 1:
Union files complaint over 'TeacherFit' surveyThe complaint, filed Tuesday with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, alleges that the lengthy survey included questions that, the union says, discouraged prospective teachers from joining together for protection against their employer or asserting rights under the teachers contract.
Union attorney Robert Bloch said such questions were used to weed out teaching applicants who might make complaints against their superiors or talk over sensitive issues with co-workers.
That is intimidating.
More NBC Chicago:
Teacher's Union Files Another Suit Against Rahm's Board of EdThe Chicago Teachers Union has filed suit against the Chicago Board of Education, claiming the board is illegally interviewing teacher applicants about their feelings about collective bargaining.
If the respondents do not provide satisfactory answers on the "TeacherFit" questionnaire, the suit alleges, they are not considered for employment. This is the second suit the Union has filed against the city in recent months.
Here are several of the questions:
Question 22, sub question 7 asks the applicant to state how much he or she agrees with the statement, "I love to challenge the status quo."
Question 27 asks the applicant how he or she would respond to being assigned work that takes away from class preparation and requires working over lunch breaks, evenings and weekends (a direct reference to longer school days.)
Question 30 asks the applicant how he or she would feel about a job that would require the applicant to regularly work after hours.
Challenge the status quo? Wow, where I taught the last few years there was none of that at all. We questioned nothing. There was hell to pay if we did. I once got warned by the principal not to be critical of Jeb Bush at the teachers' lunch table. I was told it disturbed others.
So I guess the correct answer to the last two is that one would not mind at all. Right?
The Labor Relations Board ruled against Rahm on the first complaint, and they said he acted illegally.
Breaking: Illinois Ed Labor Relations Board rules Rahm acted illegally on longer school day.The longer school day started at more than a dozen Chicago Public Schools should be halted, the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board ruled Thursday, essentially siding with the Chicago Teachers Union in its bitter dispute with district officials.
The move is a blow to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s push to implement a longer day this year, and district officials said they were “disappointed” with the board’s decision.
The school officials made it look like the teachers were against a longer school day, when in fact it was not true at all. They were standing up against a mayor who was bribing schools and teachers to go against their union contract and join with the reformers on the longer day. It's called union busting.
Chicago CPO threatened school closings, banned union reps from consulting with teachers.“Asking our members to void parts of their own contract it is unethical and illegal,” union president Karen Lewis said today.
“We want them to cease and desist from its unlawful activity, restore our teachers’ rights, post appropriate notices of its intent to extend school hours and tell us how they intend to make the school day better for our children. We’ve asked them over and over to work with us, not against us.”
The complaint, filed with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, contends CPS: threatened to close schools if teachers did not approve contract modifications; interrogated teachers about their union activities; directed teachers to report their communications with the union; wrote and distributed the contract waiver; and banned union representatives from consulting with teachers before they were coerced into waiving parts of their labor contract.
Public school teachers and their unions were not treated this badly and with this much contempt even during the Bush administration. The goals of the Bush I and II might have been the same...in fact the Obama administration is fulfilling those goals.....but they never publicly attacked teachers like this.