To All Union Members:
Presidential candidate Karen Lewis at Operation PUSH on 6/5/2010
Meeting members across the city has been an exciting and humbling experience. It is clear that our message of democracy, solidarity and our record of fighting the Board of Education has been received with enthusiasm. At the beginning of this campaign, many members called for all the opposition caucuses to unite and now we have. PACT, CSDU and SEA all back CORE. This has frightened the incumbents and they have stooped to name-calling, lies, and disinformation. As for CORE, we will continue to focus on the issues and stick to the truth.
This final week before you vote, however, we expect that the current CTU president will announce some positive news to members. We hope she does finally put our concerns first, but we also believe anything done this week is simply a last ditch effort to win votes.
Last Saturday, I was looking forward to a public, televised debate with my opponent at Rainbow/ Operation PUSH, but she cancelled at the last minute. This was unfortunate as this would have been an incredible opportunity for both of us to debate the actual issues that affect CTU members. Instead of a debate, the incumbent started a smear campaign.
If you want information about CORE, read our website and look at the work we’ve done. We have changed the way the Board does business. We stopped the Board from closing 12 schools, saved thousands of jobs, and now Board members actually attend the public hearings. By working with parents, students, teachers, PSRPs and Aldermen, we’ve forced Ron Huberman to work with struggling schools early in the year instead of simply announcing a “hit list” in January. We’ve filed two lawsuits on behalf of CTU members. One forces CPS to give us details on TIFs and their claimed “deficits” so we can save jobs and programs now. The other charges turnarounds with discriminatory firing practices.
And we accomplished all of this because we worked with our colleagues, built partnerships with our natural allies and empowered members to stand up for their profession, their jobs and their schools.
Please, vote CORE June 11th and together let’s reclaim the power of 30,000!
Karen Lewis, CORE Presidential Candidate
