Chicago Teachers Union
Greetings,


This morning we were informed that the Executive Council of the AFT has ruled that the decisions made by the CTU's members to invalidate the June election due to evidence of voting irregularities and to hold new elections over the summer were unfounded.  Instead, they have informed us that they believe the results of the  June election should stand and that they will appoint an administrator to conduct the transition to the installation of the UPC slate.


We disagree strongly with the AFT decision for its complete lack of attention to the evidence at hand and for its total disregard of the sovereignty of the CTU and the integrity of its processes.


Whatever the AFT asserts, the issue was never about the fate of the Lynch-Heath PACT slate versus the UPC slate¿or who was to stay in power. 


The issue at stake was always the integrity of the Union, its constitutionally mandated processes and our ability to move forward together. 


There probably has never been a closer election than the one held in June, with only 500 votes separating the two slates.  When reports of voting irregularities came in, with members complaining of vote tampering and irregularities, including the fact that their signatures had been forged, we had to take those charges seriously.  And while the AFT may not think there was fraud, an examination of the vote convinced two Union committees, the Canvassing Committee and the Rules-Election Committee, composed of members from all caucuses, otherwise.


What we found when the vote was examined were more than 900 missing ballots - whose disappearance had no rational explanation. What we found in the 100 schools where the vote was sampled were dozens of signatures on ballots that did not match, many of which were individuals who were, in fact, absent the day of the vote and therefore could not have voted.  The number of absentee voters alone, if extrapolated from the sample, would be over 700.  If 10,000 members who were there that day didn't vote, it's difficult to believe that more than 700 came in to vote while sick.


The Committees to which the evidence was presented, as mandated by our constitution, never knew the identity of the schools.  Their decision, as they have made clear, was based on the evidence of voting irregularities and their understanding that with the Union so divided, nothing could be more important than insuring that whatever team won the election, every member could be certain that they had won legitimately. 


Thus they voted, within their constitutionally mandated role, and in good faith to hold a new election, where the vote as well as the count was safeguarded.


We are, as one might imagine, troubled by the AFT's decision both for its content and its precedent.


We cannot understand how, in the face of 1000 unaccounted for ballots and affidavits from members about false signatures, the AFT could declare there was  'no fraud'.


As serious, as the CTU has a constitution that is sovereign, and not subject to the approval of the AFT, we cannot understand why the AFT thinks it has the right to interfere and overturn the lawfully made decisions of that sovereign body.


And we cannot understand, why the AFT, chose not to let the CTU proceed with another election, conducted in a manner in which both the vote and the count could be protected.
As you know, from the beginning we opposed the AFT's intervention.  As an affiliate to, not a creature of the AFT, we were clear that the AFT had no legal authority to interfere in CTU business.  Further, we had some qualms about the particular relationships between the AFT and the UPC Slate.


As some may know, the UPC's Attorney, Lawrence Poltrock, who had billed the CTU more than $1.5 million per year during the years of the UPC Reese Administration, and who is rumored to have personally financed this year's UPC campaign, also has served as the AFT's attorney for over twenty years.   While on July 1st, the AFT granted Poltrock a 'temporary leave of absence", the suggestion of conflict of interest certainly gave us pause and made us wonder  how objective an AFT investigation of the CTU's internal processes would be, despite AFT's mandated policy to stay out of local union politics.


However, in the interests of ensuring that a new election, in which members could feel confident, we not only agreed to the AFT's process, but in fact offered to step down so that an AFT-appointed administrator could operate the Union for the two months until a new election (scheduled to be completed in September) could be held.


While the AFT did not accept our proposal to step down and let an administrator run the Union, they did proceed with a 'hearing' at which Mr. Poltrock was the only UPC spokesperson.


Amazingly, during the hearing, Mr. Poltrock  did not produce one witness willing to come forward and swear under oath that the signatures identified as non-matching was theirs, nor one witness to say that they indeed were absent on election day but came in to vote. Equally amazing, the four-person investigating committee never even asked any questions about the missing ballots or fraud. 


In fact the only questions they asked revolved around why no one alerted Ms. Stewart about the irregularities.  Frankly the answer to that is that neither committee was ever told that the greatest irregularities took place at the schools of UPC-candidates: Wells High School where UPC chair and officer candidate Dallas works (with 6 non-matching signatures, 6 absent voters 4 of which were also non-matching signatures and 3 unaccounted for ballots), Nicholson School where UPC candidate Linda Porter Milton works (with 3 non-matching signatures all of whom were also absentee votes and, 6 absentee voters in all and 4 missing ballots; and Gladstone School where UPC candidate for Executive Board works, with 7 non-matching signatures, 4 of whom were absentee voters and missing ballots.  That information was withheld from the Committees to ensure that their discussion on the matter would not be influenced by partisan politics.


One can only assume that in the face of dozens of clearly suspect signatures in a sample of schools reviewed and 1000 unaccounted for ballots overall, that the AFT found no fraud because they didn't want to find it.


This is also not the first time that the UPC has been accused of election fraud.  The January 2003 retiree delegate election, for example, had to be rerun after 175 counterfeit ballots, all for UPC candidates, were found.


Nor is this the first time that the AFT has looked the other way at UPC misconduct. The AFT also upheld two previous election challenges filed by PACT on the integrity of the election process in 1996 and 1998 when the UPC was in power.  While in both instances the AFT investigating committees found nothing, the U.S. Department of Labor bound in both instances violations of both the CTU Constitution and federal election law.


Thus the decision of the AFT is not surprising.


Once again, for whatever reasons, the AFT has chosen to ignore election irregularities. What is new, and dangerous however, is the AFT's total disregard for our Union's autonomy and the integrity of its constitutionally mandated processes.


Whatever the AFT thinks, we think that election fraud is reprehensible and deprives union members of their vote.


Whatever the AFT thinks, we believe that the Union Constitution is sacrosanct and that the CTU Rules and Elections and Canvassing Committees acted within their constitutional mandates.


Whatever the AFT thinks, we believe that there should be a new election, as decided by those committees, and that every CTU member's vote should be counted.


And whatever the AFT thinks, we believe that unless a Union is guilty of a violation of law or a violation of their or the AFT's constitution, that the AFT should abide by its strict policy of staying out of internal politics.


That said, we will abide by the AFT's decision and step aside.   As we said more than a month ago, when we asked the AFT to appoint an administrator to run a new election, our only reason for staying was to ensure that a clean, protected election could be held.  We were certainly reticent to let the foxes guard the hen house.


Sadly, the AFT did not agree¿.and we are certain that the UPC slate will not let a new election occur.


For PACT, our path is clear. While we will bring the election fraud issues to the U.S. Department of Labor as we have done before, our real task will be to get on with the work that has motivated us for the past decade --- the organizing of teachers and staff to address the challenges facing our Union Today.


For PACT, winning Union leadership was never about the jobs or the perks¿.but about providing our membership with the skills and strength needed to address the real threats to our profession.


Teachers and staff face unprecedented challenges.  We are blamed for the failures of students, we are set upon by corporations who would use student and school failures to destroy public education and teachers unions and replace them with for-profit 'educational corporations. 


In the few years the PACT leadership was at the helm of the Union we have made great progress.  Not only did we achieve the restoration of our bargaining rights and significant contract gains, we saved 10 schools and hundreds of jobs, created teacher-led schools that excelled, resurrected respect for teachers, provided job enhancement and job protection for hundreds of at-risk teachers and staff and placed our members once again at the center of education policy.


And so, as we leave office, we invite all those who value integrity and honesty and who understand the challenges facing our members and our schools and the leadership necessary to face those challenges, to join PACT, as we build to fight another day.


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