Progress Illinois

Unions have been crucial in helping women get rights, better pay and benefits in the workplace, panelists at a forum in Waukegan stressed Wednesday evening.

With a backdrop of teacher strikes in Chicago and Lake Forest, this forum focused not on endorsing candidates for office, but on dispelling "ignorance" too often associated with unions, according to an organizer with the pro-union group Industrial Workers of the World.

“We are in the fight for our life,” said Helen Ramirez-Odell, a panelist at the forum who worked nearly 44 years as a Chicago Public Schools nurse and is now a CTU district supervisor. “It’s taken a lot to get teachers to this point.”

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With contract negotiations still at an impasse, Chicago public school teachers hit the picket lines for a second day as local and national labor union leaders joined in a show of support.

Instead of heading to their respective schools Tuesday morning, many teachers picketed outside of the schools chosen for Chicago Public Schools' $25 million “Children First” contingency plan.

“If they can afford the contingency plan, what is the problem with paying the teachers or providing resources and the things that they need in order to be effective,” asked Kenge McCall, a third-grade teacher at Washington Irving Elementary.

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The SEIU Illinois State Council, which sponsors this web site, has released their endorsements for the upcoming November 6 general elections.

“Each of these candidates has championed the needs of the working families united in SEIU and the millions of people they serve every day as home care and child care providers, public employees, medical professionals, security guards, janitors, first responders and social service workers,” said Tom Balanoff, president of the SEIU Illinois State Council.

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