Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, who gained national prominence with her leadership style and denunciations of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, won another three-year term without having to run.
The CTU’s governing body voted to cancel an election for officers because of a lack of opposition to a slate led by Lewis and Vice President Jesse Sharkey, the union said Thursday.
Lewis’ appointment to a third term allows the union to avoid a potentially distracting election during the final stages of contract negotiations with the Chicago Board of Education.
The lack of opposition to Lewis’ candidacy also indicates she has consolidated power as the union mounts a populist challenge to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s union-weakening agenda.
If Lewis, 62, completes the term she will approach the decadelong tenure of former CTU President Jacqueline Vaughn, a groundbreaking leader in the 1980s and early 1990s.
The union said the one CTU member who attempted a run against union leadership failed to secure the required number of signatures on nominating petitions. That led delegates to vote Wednesday to cancel an election that would have cost $300,000, according to the union.
Along with Lewis, Sharkey and recording secretary Michael Brunson will retain their positions for three-year terms beginning in July. Kristine Mayle, the leadership team’s fourth member and union financial secretary, decided not to run for re-election and will be replaced by speech language pathologist Maria Moreno.
Lewis’ Caucus of Rank and File Educators “has really got hegemony,” said Rodney Estvan, an education policy expert with the Access Living organization.
“They’ve got a lot of support amongst older and younger teachers,” he said. “She’s a charismatic figure, and they’re not going to turn on her. That’s not going to happen.”
Lewis took office in 2010 and two years later led a seven-day strike after 25 years of relative labor peace between CTU and the city.
Last week, she led the CTU on a one-day walkout to draw attention to contract talks and the union’s demand for a new education-funding formula for the state.
In late 2014, her bid to challenge Emanuel for mayor was derailed when she was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Her health remains a delicate subject. She was hospitalized in March after experiencing a seizure.
“I overworked myself,” she said a week later.
Wednesday’s vote by the CTU’s House of Delegates came as union officials deliberated how to respond to a fact-finder’s report due later this month. If the union and the school board accept the fact-finder’s conclusions, they would be incorporated into a new contract.
If either side rejects those findings, the fact-finder’s report would be released publicly and teachers can move to strike after a monthlong waiting period. That process would wind up close to the end of the school year.
If agreement on a contract to replace one that expired June 30 still can’t be reached, a strike could occur anytime — including this fall after the new school year begins.
The union’s one-day strike last week prompted a CPS legal challenge to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board. The district argued union members are barred from striking outside the authority of a state law that governs contract talks between the school district and union.
In December, the union said that 88 percent of its members agreed to authorize union leaders to call a strike if a contract agreement cannot be reached. That’s well above the 75 percent necessary under state law for a strike to occur.
Chicago Public Schools asked a state board controlled by Rauner, a union opponent, to invalidate the strike authorization vote.
The union’s three-day voting process was “inherently flawed,” school system attorneys argued to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board in December.
CPS also asserted the union could not vote on a strike until contract talks concluded.
That charge is still under investigation by the labor board, and no hearing date has been set.
Twitter @PerezJr
