More strikes It took a publicly embarrassing (to the mayor) Karen Lewis-led revolt to be the example other local unions needed. The national attention the CPS strike received gave courage to other teachers and teachers unions to go Norma Rae on any damn school board that they felt was disrespecting them. Evergreen Park and Lake Forest followed the leaders and started a trend that by this time next year will have teachers in unions all over the nation chanting “Viva Jimmy Hoffa!”
Audience choice: Kids are back in school Best audience comments: “Awesome red t-shirts”; Bettor stutendts and starmer Chiogoans [sic]”; “Hopefully people care more about paying teachers a decent wage, and know that unions have power”; “Karen Lewis as folk hero”; “Karen Lewis no longer in the news”; “Rahm Emanuel likes Nickleback”; “The protest signs—Our teachers working conditions are your children’s learning conditions”; “A bunch of kids who normally couldn’t afford certain classes, like Second City, got free camps at a lot of different places”; “People who know absolutely nothing about teachers, Rahm Emanuel, or the fair city of Chicago go back to not expressing asinine opinions or espousing false statistics in time to focus back on election memes”; “Rahm lost—and was genuinely shocked that the Chicago Parents of the Students were stridently pro-labor”; “Teachers are treated fairly and with dignity—meaning more money and part of the process when discussing their future”
