The new leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union say they are discussing changes to union elections and have begun to look hard at the union鈥檚 professional-development center.
After an investigation into the CTU鈥檚 most recent presidential election, the American Federation of Teachers declared last month that Marilyn Stewart had fairly unseated incumbent Deborah Lynch. Though Ms. Lynch vehemently contested the finding by the parent union, she agreed to step down from the job she had held for three years.
In a report released the same day as that finding, the AFT also recommended an election-procedure switch from school-based ballot boxes to mail-in ballots.
AFT officials said the national union鈥檚 investigating committee found 鈥渘o grounds for overturning鈥� the June 11 runoff election, which Ms. Stewart appeared to win by a narrow margin. Results of that vote had been tossed out by a union committee under Ms. Lynch, which cited evidence of possible fraud and also called for a new election. (鈥淎FT Conducts Probe of Election in Chicago,鈥� July 28, 2004.)
The committee 鈥渇ound no evidence of ballot tampering, fraud, or any other wrongdoing,鈥� the AFT said in a statement.
What鈥檚 more, the committee obliquely chastised Ms. Lynch鈥檚 team for the way it tried to nullify the election. 鈥淭he process by which certain information regarding alleged election improprieties was collected and presented 鈥� was fundamentally flawed and lacked due process,鈥� the statement said.
鈥楽mooth鈥� Transition
AFT leaders met with the two Chicago rivals early on Aug. 6 to reveal the committee鈥檚 decision, which had the endorsement of the national union鈥檚 42-member executive council.
Alex Wohl, a spokesman for the AFT, characterized the transition as 鈥渞emarkably smooth.鈥�
鈥淒eborah Lynch agreed to assist with the transition,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t began immediately.鈥�
Despite that accord, Ms. Lynch made clear that she disagreed with the outcome. She maintained that the AFT had ignored evidence of fraud and did not have the right to overturn decisions made by two separate CTU committees to invalidate the election results and call a new election.
鈥淥ne can only assume that in the face of dozens of clearly suspect signatures in a sample of schools reviewed and 1,000 unaccounted-for ballots overall that the AFT found no fraud because they didn鈥檛 want to find it,鈥� Ms. Lynch charged in a statement.
Ms. Lynch said her slate would bring the election-fraud issues to the attention of the U.S. Department of Labor. It would be the third time she has protested a loss to Ms. Stewart鈥檚 faction, which ran the union for 30 years before Ms. Lynch鈥檚 upset victory in 2001. In both the 1995 and 1998 votes, the Labor Department found violations of election rules.
For her part, Ms. Stewart said in a statement that she was pleased that the AFT had 鈥渁greed with our analysis that these allegations and the actions that followed were politically motivated, irrational, illegal, and unconstitutional.鈥�
The nation鈥檚 third-largest teachers鈥� union local, with 33,000 members, had been riven by conflict since late June, when the CTU committee declared the election invalid. The two sides battled over the CTU鈥檚 offices, purse strings, and representation at the national AFT convention. Ms. Lynch had the locks changed on the union鈥檚 offices to keep out the rival leaders. Ms. Stewart asked the AFT to investigate the fraud charges.
In response, the AFT鈥檚 top leaders sent three big-city union presidents to Chicago to hear evidence both on whether the election was invalid and whether union committees under Ms. Lynch had exercised their powers within the local and national unions鈥� constitutions.
Shift in Mission?
Many observers believe that Ms. Stewart, a longtime teacher of children who are deaf and hard of hearing, is likely to step back from the education reform agenda that has brought Ms. Lynch national attention. (鈥淟ong Passage,鈥� June 5, 2002.)
Ms. Stewart has said she wants to refocus the union on member services and move away from 鈥渁 major shift to staff development鈥� that she says happened under Ms. Lynch. The defeated president has a long background in teacher professional development.
One order of business is to deal with the national union鈥檚 recommendation of a switch to mail-in ballots. 鈥淲e certainly want to run a clean election,鈥� said Mary McGuire, the CTU鈥檚 recording secretary. 鈥淎s to what it will look like precisely, we don鈥檛 [yet] know.鈥�
Ms. McGuire disputed the idea that the local union鈥檚 leader would backpedal on school improvement measures. 鈥淧resident Stewart does hope to build on the reforms put into place with the assistance of the CTU. It appears those reforms pay off,鈥� she said, citing recent test-score increases for Chicago schoolchildren.
But the recording secretary acknowledged that the union-sponsored professional-development center that Ms. Lynch once headed and that has been hailed as a national model will come in for scrutiny. 鈥淲e have asked the [Illinois Federation of Teachers] and the AFT to come in and do an exhaustive study of the Quest Center, making sure it provides the services our members need,鈥� she said.
