Organized labor can’t make up its mind for the Chicago mayor election

Remaining neutral?

It's intriguing to see the way that the various factions that comprise organized labor and unions are shaping up with regards to the upcoming mayoral election run-off.

With the "excitement" factor amongst the electorate focusing on the campaign of Lori Lightfoot for mayor, it seems that Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is counting on having the "reliable" factor of having labor unions on her side.

Siding with one-time member

BECAUSE UNIONS DO have the ability to get their members to turn out and actually cast ballots in accordance with the desires of union leadership.

If that one poll commissioned by Stand by Children Illinois that shows Lori Lightfoot with a 2-1 vote ratio in her favor really has any truth to it, then Preckwinkle really is going to need every bit of organized labor support if she’s to have the least bit of a chance to have victory in the April 2 run-off election.

Which is why Camp Preckwinkle surely was disappointed to learn this week that the Chicago Federation of Labor – the organization that oversees so many union locals – has decided to remain neutral.

The union leadership may well be taking the honest attitude – one that says their interviews with the two mayoral candidates have such similar views and attitudes on issues related to workers and labor that they can’t pick between the two.

PRECKWINKLE: Her labor backing unsure

ANYBODY WHO THINKS there’d be a serious difference between a Mayor Lightfoot and a Mayor Preckwinkle is exaggerating the fact.

Although it seems that the labor unions that backed the campaign of Susana Mendoza during the first phase of the municipal election cycle are basing their endorsement decisions on the fact that Preckwinkle focused much of her negative campaigning against Susana.

Lightfoot could get some union member support just based on the fact that they want to spite Preckwinkle come April 2. And since the Preckwinkle campaign is basing its hopes so heavily on a strong union member voter turnout, the lack of an endorsement could result in enough voter apathy that could result in a Lightfoot victory.

LIGHTFOOT: Uncertainty a plus for Lori?

Perhaps even enough that justify the idea that Lightfoot is leading Preckwinkle by a 58 percent to 30 percent margin.

SO I’M SURE that Preckwinkle is determined to exaggerate the significance of one union that seems willing to stand by her side – as in the Chicago Teachers Union. Which remembers that back in the days before she became a political person, Toni was a school teacher.

The union issued its own statement saying that the 2-1 voter ratio support for Lightfoot was “stupid.” They were quick to recall that Stand by Children was a group that supported efforts back in 2011 to raise the standards by which the teachers’ union could go on strike.

As they see it, the group was nothing more than an organization promoting the anti-labor beliefs of Bruce Rauner – who we all know later went on to his one term as Illinois governor, where he tried imposing his anti-union agenda on all of us only to have the voters reject his re-election bid last year.

Should we disregard the idea that Lori Lightfoot has such a huge lead, or that people are that opposed to the idea of a “Mayor Preckwinkle?” Personally, I think the number of people surveyed for the poll (only about 400) is too small to reach a serious conclusion about anything.

BUT IT WOULD seem that Preckwinkle has at least the teachers’ union remaining on her side. Although, to be truthful, it’s not unusual for the teachers’ union and other unions to be in disagreement with each other.

Will Preckwinkle move from left to right side of bldg. following Election Day?

With the schoolteachers often taking more progressive stances on issues as opposed to the unions that represent workers who earn their living with physical labor.

Although the idea that Preckwinkle has the more liberal union members potentially on her side would fit in with the Preckwinkle campaign strategy of convincing voters that she, and not Lightfoot, is the true progressive for people to pick from come Election Day.

Which is a stance she would not have had to think of taking if the originally-expected scenario of a run-off election between Preckwinkle and William Daley were reality.

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We in Chicago have priorities straight

The nation may have been obsessing politically Tuesday over Donald J. Trump and his first nationally-televised address to Congress and the nation, what with Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., going so far as to make a fundraising pitch where she says his rhetoric will be filled with "whatever lies he spreads in his speech."

CLAYPOOL: Cutting the school year short?

But I suspect we here in the Second City had our priorities straight, being more concerned with the potential for political shenanigans that may wind up impacting the Chicago Public Schools and those young people who have little choice but to try to get themselves an education in that system.

THE FEAR IS that with the ongoing inability of Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic Party-led General Assembly to put together a budget that ensures state government can function as its supposed to, the funding that the state already unreliably provides to public education programs will be tampered with.

Which led to the letter Mayor Rahm Emanuel had drafted to send to parents of public school kids, telling them that the 2016-17 school year may have to come to an abrupt end June 1. As things stand officially, the school year is supposed to run through June 20, although it could go longer if we get sudden bursts of harsh wintry weather that could force snow days to be used.

Perhaps that means we ought to be grateful that we have had a mild winter this season. I'm not aware of schools having to be closed at all this year due to snow or excess cold.

The letter was signed by schools CEO Forrest Claypool, but people are pretty sure he wouldn't have the nerve to concoct an idea like this without having the approval of Hizzoner himself.

PERSONALLY, I WONDER how this would harm the students themselves, since they're supposed to have a certain minimum amount of actual days in the classroom for a school year to "count" for something. Basically, to ensure that all students are getting certain amounts of class work, regardless of what district they're actually attending school in.

EMANUEL: The 'man' behind the 'plan?'

Could we be putting our system's students into a status where their school year would not officially count? Would we be doing the equivalent of holding them back a year because of the financial mess?

Would we be giving the crackpots of our society all the more fuel to mock anyone who comes out of the Chicago Public Schools system to think the city somehow lags behind the rest of Illinois?

The Chicago Teachers Union, which is always quick to denounce anything where there's even a tinge of being able to "Blame Emanuel!" in the works, may actually have a point this time with their criticisms.

THE CHICAGO PUBLIC Schools, they say, "is broke on purpose. Hundreds of millions of dollrs remain in TIF surplus funds -- revenuethat could plug the holes in school budgets throughout the district today."

I don't know about the merits of using tax increment district funds (which are supposed to be used to encourage businesses in specific districts to make investments in their long-term viability) for schools operations. But I'm sure we're now facing a drastic enough situation that previously-unconsidered measures need to be contemplated.

Because right now, the teachers union isn't really wrong when they say, "It is criminal that we have a mayor that would rather wait out Rauner's hostage situation (the lack of a state budget) instead of doing the right thing and providing the revenue to fully resource schools."

I'm almost surprised that Trump hasn't used this situation to make more of his Tweets from a Twit to rant about the Chicago schools being in sorry shape, just as the GOPers of the Reagan era used to like to use the "worst in America" label to lambast the Chicago Public Schools. Or maybe that would require Trump to keep more than one train of thought going at a time -- and for now, Chicago is about murder!

OF COURSE, THERE also are the confirmations of all the appointments that Trump wants to make to the federal government, and it seems there are complications with the attempt to put Todd Ricketts in as deputy Commerce secretary. CBS News reported that Ricketts, a member of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs, may have to withdraw his nomination later this week, in order to avoid the humiliation of being formally rejected by the Senate.

RICKETTS: Too many conflicts?

It seems that Ricketts' connections to AmeriTrade, which is the family's primary business interest, puts him into so many financial conflicts of interest with government that it would be impossible for him to comply with Office of Government Ethics rules.

The benefit of Ricketts not getting the appointment may well be the Cubs, since it will reduce the potential for people to take pot shots at the ball club by labelling them the preferred ball club of the Trump Administration -- a status that Chicago White Sox fans (who enjoyed the status of their team labelling former President Barack Obama their "first fan") would be more than willing to exploit.

But it also makes me wonder about all the stink we've been hearing with regards to the potential for Trump himself to have conflicts of interest because of his business ties -- do we have a system of government in which Trump is fit for 46 percent of the electorate to say he can be president, but he'd be unfit if somebody else tried to appoint him to a cabinet post?

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Will Rauner be eaten by Chicago “bear” now sleeping in Illinois “woods?”

A large part of the reason why I downplay the rhetoric about the Republicans’ great Election Day victories in Illinois (they took a half dozen seats in the Legislature last month in rural parts of the state formerly occupied by Democrats) is because I don’t see how it impacts the way things get done.
 

RAUNER: Taking on the bear sleeping in woods

Or don’t get done, within the context of Illinois state government operations.

GOP POLITICAL OPERATIVES argue that the 60 percent Democratic majorities in both legislative chambers have been broken, and that when Gov. Bruce Rauner hands down a veto, now it will be able to stand (unless he manages to offend Republican officials as well).

But as anyone who watched this week’s legislative nonsense with regards to state financial assistance for the Chicago Public Schools realizes, Rauner already had that power. What has he gained?

For those not paying attention, Rauner this week issued a veto to a bill approved back in the summer that would have provided some $215 million in assistance to cover pensions for the Chicago Public Schools – money that District 299 was desperately relying on to balance out their budget for the year.

The Illinois Senate immediately took up the veto override, and gave their support to rejecting Rauner’s rejection – to having the state make the payment.

YET OVER IN the Illinois House, where Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, supposedly (if you listen to Rauner) rules like a warlord of old and deliberately disregards the needs of the public, nothing happened.

MADIGAN: Inaction because he knew he couldn't?

The General Assembly adjourned its fall session on Thursday with no plans to return until their final day in January – which will be followed up by the swearing-in of the newly-elected Legislature.

The one that has six more Republican members and no longer has the illusion of Madigan having a “veto-proof” majority.

There is speculation that legislators could be called into session for a special day of activity to take up the issue. But that’s presuming they could actually get their members all coordinated for such an event.

IF IT WERE possible, I suspect the Illinois House would have acted like the state Senate did – and voted right away to dump all over Rauner’s veto. I'm sure Madigan wishes he could make it so. I suspect his offer to meet Saturday and Sunday with the governor were less than sincere.

 

LEWIS: Union never expected gov to keep word

Meaning it is most likely that Rauner’s rejection of the school funding measure for Chicago schools stands, and the financial help promise is deader than the Chicago Bears’ dreams of playing in the upcoming Super Bowl! Which is the way things would have wound up before, and will turn out after, the transition on Jan. 11.

As for who is to blame, it’s the usual partisan political rhetoric. Both sides are blaming each other (Rauner didn’t approve the school funding like he promised he would, while Democrats leading the Legislature never came up with a companion bill providing pension funding relief).

It is dreadfully obvious that Rauner intends to use the whole issue to politick in his ongoing effort to use the 2018 election cycle to further decrease the number of Democrats representing rural parts of the state. Chicago Teachers Union officials say they believe Rauner never intended to give the schools anything, and that he was always looking for an excuse to back out of the deal. Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Rauner, by supporting a utility company bailout, chose big business over children.

IT IS A move that I could see coming back to bite him in the fanny, for all it means is that he’ll have solid control over the one-third of Illinois’ population that lives outside of the Chicago area.

Because the rhetoric he and political operatives are spewing certainly isn’t going to have a mass appeal to Illinoisans at-large. It’s too Chicago-focused, and may well get Chicago voters all riled up. Think of us as the Chicago “bear” sleeping in the woods who, upon being awoken, will be angered and wind up devouring him.

TRUMP: Did Rauner learn wrong lesson?

Perhaps Rauner spent too much time watching the recently-completed presidential election cycle and thinks he can make the label of “Chicagoans” sound as demonic as the label “Mexicans” was used by President-elect Donald Trump?

Trump may have been able to win the presidency with a minority of voters through the quirks of the Electoral College, but those wouldn’t apply to a statewide election. Rauner could wind up blowing his personal fortune trying to buy up every single rural Illinois vote in existence – only to learn that in singling out Chicago, he was attacking the very place where the overwhelming majority of our state’s residents live and work.

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EXTRA: It’s beginning to look a lot like a strike will take place this autumn

We’ll know more come Wednesday, but it’s becoming more apparent that the Chicago Teachers Union is not likely to reach any contract agreement any time soon in their ongoing dispute with the public schools system.

Union officials on Monday let it be known the results of its recent vote over whether to issue a strike authorization. That’s the step by which the actual teachers give the teachers’ union leadership the authority to decide whether to call for a strike.

AS IN PICKET lines, protests and teachers chanting slogans that take the name of Mayor Rahm Emanuel in vain, all while parents get all peeved that they now have to find alternate daycare for their children – whom they had counted on being able to shuttle off to school.

For the record, 90.6 percent of union members took part in the vote, and 95.6 percent of those people voted “yes” to the idea of going out on strike.

In short, teachers are upset with the idea that school management has tried to make it seem as though it’s their greed that is causing the financial problems that confront the Chicago Public Schools system.

So after going through decades of leadership during the years of Mayor Richard M. Daley without labor disputes, it appears that Emanuel could face the prospect of his third strike to occur during his five years, thus far, as mayor.

THE NEXT STEP is for the teachers’ union’s governing body to meet, and that is scheduled for Wednesday. At that time, the union could proceed to approve the 10-day notice required by law of the teachers’ intent to take to the picket lines.

It also means the first day we could actually see picketing school teachers is Oct. 11 – one day after the official day for celebrating Columbus Day. Which means we could literally get the sight of picketing American Indian activists calling Christopher Columbus a slave trader and a tyrant, followed up a day later by the sight of school teachers coming up with nastier things to say about Emanuel.

There really is no love lost between the two sides, as most people perceive the Chicago Public Schools management as nothing more than a batch of lackeys doing the mayor’s bidding.

Is it all Rahm's fault?

One other potential issue, for those who are religious-minded.

TECHNICALLY, THE JEWISH holiday of Yom Kippur is Oct. 12, with certain aspects of its celebration beginning the night before.

Could someone who is Jewish and who teaches in the Chicago schools claim they’re not working because they’re honoring their religious beliefs? Or would they have to make their religious statement by not participating in the picketing that could place that day?

On a serious note, I realize there are real issues at stake in this labor dispute, and this one religious issue is likely to be a minor point, if significant at all.

But with the proposed cuts that union officials say will hurt special education classes, librarians, counselors, social workers and teachers’ aides – along with leaving many needed teachers out-of-work – we have to find some way of alleviating the hurt that likely is going to spill out publicly in coming weeks.

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“Incompetent” and “Illiterate?” Could we say governor is “Clueless?”

I feel a little cheap referring to a five-year-old e-mail written back before anybody in public life cared one bit who Bruce Rauner was.

 

RAUNER: Revising his words

But the man who is now governor is going to have to take some political abuse from people on account of an e-mail message he sent back in 2011 where he was critical of the Chicago Public Schools.

SPECIFICALLY, RAUNER SAID management of the public schools was “incompetent” while the quality of teachers was also lacking, since they were – he felt – “illiterate.”

I’m not about to come to Rauner’s defense. I have aunts, uncles and cousins who either have worked for, or are currently employed by, the Chicago Public Schools in one capacity or another.

So yes, a part of me writes this commentary with a sentiment similar to that expressed in the film “The Godfather” when Al Pacino’s “Michael” warned brother “Fredo” (actor John Cazale) to “Don’t ever take sides with anyone against the family again.”

I’m aware that there are people who made a conscious choice to devote a portion of their lives to a cause they feel is noble, even though there likely are other things they could do in life that would provide them with much better financial compensation.

BUT LET’S ALSO be honest and admit that bad-mouthing the quality of the Chicago Public Schools is something that many of us do all too freely. I know in my case, my parents timed a suburban move to just weeks before I was old enough to begin school and I didn’t return to live in Chicago proper until I was of college-age.

So perhaps I’m not the prime person to try to defend the honor of the Chicago Public Schools.

But reading cheap wisecracks such as those written by Rauner all those years ago just comes across as something we shouldn’t take the least bit seriously. It’s just the same old rant being spewed yet again.

It’s not terribly original. It does nothing to enhance the quality of the schools or persuade people to want to work better at their jobs.

IF ANYTHING, IT encourages the alleged incompetents whom some want to believe only keep their jobs through the power of organized labor to dig in their heels all the harder to remain in place.

Keeping their jobs out of spite, it would seem!

Besides, I know there also are people who would say that government employees aren’t exactly the most motivated – counting purely on partisan politics and the ability of their “sponsors” to keep winning elections to ensure they keep their jobs.

Which is why Rauner seemed eager Thursday night to promptly issue an apology when the old e-mails became publicly known. His trash talk of old had the ability to create problems for him, and he’d better be quick to apologize.

OR ELSE THE people who are critical of Rauner’s performance as governor during the past two years would be quick to come up with their own labels for his administration; and they’d probably come up with tags that would stick far longer than the ones he tried to put on Chicago Public School officials.

Besides, there isn’t much for Rauner to gain by wanting to step up his hostility toward the Chicago Teachers Union – which already regards Mayor Rahm Emanuel as a sworn enemy. Does the governor really want to compete with Hizzoner for the title of “Most Despised” government official?

Besides, I already can envision the “prize” one would receive for that title – my late aunt Charlene (who worked at Chicago Vocational School for many years) would come back from the great beyond to haunt them.

Rauner a new Chicago Public Schools 'enemy?'

It would not be a pleasant experience. While my Tia Charlene was a loving woman, she was not someone you’d want to be on her bad side.

HER PERSISTENCE IN pursuing a cause (at her life’s end, she was one of the activist-types fighting against the presence of pet coke in her South Deering neighborhood) meant she’d keep on your case eternally.

Which may be the fate that Rauner will now suffer at the hands of Chicago schoolteachers everywhere!

  -30-

No teacher’s strike in ‘16? I’d feel safer predicting an all-Chicago World Series

With all the back-and-forth that has occurred in recent months between the Chicago Public Schools and their teacher’s union, nobody really knows how the negotiations will turn out and whether we’ll get the sight of picket sign-bearing schoolteachers demanding more pay and benefits.

You just know that however the talks between schools and the teacher's union for a new contract wind up, we're going to find some reason to place blame on Rahm Emanuel.

The Chicago Sun-Times gave us the big headline “No Appetite For A Strike,” to support a story on Monday about Chicago Teachers Union officials saying the rank-and-file really don’t want to go out on strike. BUT they would if the administration does something to provoke them.

IN SHORT, IF there is a strike, it will be the administration’s fault, according to the union. Which issued a statement Monday saying the schools DO have enough money to provide a respectable contract, but would "rather take their fiscal woes out on the hides of educators and other school employees." Since the school administration is hand-picked by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, it ultimately becomes the mayor's fault.

Blame Rahm! Everything’s his fault.

Now I’m not about to predict how all of this will turn out, although it seems based on the most recent reporting that there isn’t any sort of enthusiasm for a teacher’s strike to begin later this month – one that theoretically would wipe out the rest of the school year.

Although school officials insist they’ve done enough of the current academic year that nobody in the way of students or parents would lose out. Only the teachers themselves would lose pay and benefits for that time, and any time lost off the summer break.

WHICH MEANS IF there is a strike, it is still most likely to be one that crops up come September. One that is meant to throw the 2016-17 academic year all out of whack – unless those darned administrators come to their senses and give the teachers what they want.

Which really isn’t much. Basically, they’re asking to keep as much of what they already have and not have significant cuts made at their expense in the name of balancing out the Chicago Public Schools’ finances!

Now I know the schools’ administration says that can’t be done. There are going to have to be reductions, and they’re trying to avoid having to whack the faculty staffing level to the point where there’d be a significant teacher shortage in the future.

What we had was that proposal made earlier this year by the schools, the one that officials said was the best offer they could make, but that the union rejected without even sending it to their membership for a vote.

ONLY TO HAVE an outside arbitrator rule recently that the schools’ offer may well be the best that can be done?

So there we are. Who’s going to be willing to give? Is it possible for anybody to give? Who’s going to be willing to look weak and ineffectual? And above all, would parents wind up becoming so frustrated at having to make arrangements for their kids’ day care in the event of a strike that they wind up blaming everybody in sight?

Blame the teachers! Blame the schools and their administrators! Blame societal conditions! And above all else, blame Rahm Emanuel!!!!!!!!!!!

So will there be a teacher’s strike; either later this month or some time in September? I don’t know. Anybody who claims they do know is lying to you.

I REALLY WOULD feel safer placing a bet that the World Series this year will be the long-awaited Chicago White Sox vs. Chicago Cubs match-up.

Both ball clubs began the second month of the 2016 season in first place in their respective divisions. Although anybody with sense about baseball knows Memorial Day is the point at which you first seriously study the standings to determine who started off good.

By that point, the teams could be struggling to play .500 ball.

And that bet of a Chicago defeating Chicago in the World Series for the first time in 110 years since the Sox took down the Cubs in 1906 would look as premature as the one saying the sides will agree on a teacher's contract without the need to walk the picket lines.

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EXTRA: Soviet-style, or mere practicality, w/ regard to no elections

I’m still trying to figure out what to think of the reports that the Chicago Teachers Union cancelled its elections for union officers, saying that incumbent members would merely have their terms extended by another three years each.

For it seems that all the incumbent union officers wanted to seek re-election come May, and nobody tried to run a campaign to challenge anybody, according to the Catalyst Chicago magazine that on Thursday reported about the elections’ cancellation.

NOT KAREN LEWIS, the CTU president whom I suspect is the only union official the general public would recognize. Not any of them.

So much for what I’m sure was the Chicago Public Schools’ dream of having the rank-and-file dump their leadership and replace them with people more malleable to the will of the school’s administration – which ultimately means the will of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

I’m sorry that the idea of cancelling an election and merely declaring the incumbents the victors bothers me. It has overtones of the Soviet Union of old – or any other totalitarian state where the elections meant to express the “free will of the people” always wind up returning the establishment.

Although I also realize that the process of staging an election is costly.

THERE ARE TIMES I wonder how much it is worth our own election process when so many of the offices up for grabs are being sought solely by the incumbents who face no challengers.

I bet Rahm wishes he could cancel elections

So are Lewis & Co. merely being practical? Or have they staged a coup d’etat of sorts to keep control of their union – which still has to try to reach agreement with the Chicago Public Schools over a new contract for its teachers.

Or else face the wrath of the public if they go on strike and leave all those parents of schoolchildren in a tizzy trying to figure out where their kids will go during the day while they’re at work!

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‘Day of Action’ more like expanded effort to get teachers’ union on TV

It will be interesting to see how the public reacts to Friday – the day that the Chicago Teachers Union has a one-day strike, of sorts, planned.

Looking to build up friends

The union has its gripes with the Chicago Public Schools (what else is new), and the hope is that a one-day lack of teachers in the schools somehow scares the board of education into taking their concerns more seriously.

THE IDEA BEING that a one-day work stoppage could avert a lengthier strike at some point in the future.

Yet I must admit to being skeptical – in part because I realize the Chicago Public Schools are run by people who have their own stubborn streak and if there was an easy solution toward achieving a new contract for the public school teachers it would have been negotiated a long time ago.

But also, I can’t help but note the large amount of activity planned for Friday that seems not all that concerned with public education.

The ‘Day of Action’ is intended to be a whole day on Friday of activities meant to show the teachers’ union solidarity with other organized labor interests. As in the teachers union wants to be sure that if there is a future strike, they will have the backing of labor unions in other industries.

LOOKING AT THE tentative schedule the union put together (it could always change and Friday could turn out to be completely different), there will be teachers in places ranging from the Nabisco cookie manufacturing plant at 73^rd Street and Kedzie Avenue to the Cook County Jail (as part of a stunt meant to encourage increased education funding to avoid children growing up into inmates).
 

From a visit to the Cook County Jail ...

There will be teachers partaking in events at Chicago State University (where financial conditions are so strapped officials recently demanded the return of keys by employees in case the school has to shut down) and at Northeastern Illinois University.

Where officials there have planned their own protest events to show support for the Chicago Public Schools teachers. Which is relevant because many of the students at the Northwest Side public college came out of the Chicago Public Schools.
 

... to a solidarity visit to a McDonalds, ...

Heck, there even will be an early morning rally of some teachers outside a McDonalds – got to show support for an increased minimum wage, and what is more symbolic of someone stuck working at the bottom of our society’s economic scale than someone earning some money by working the grill or the cash register while serving up Big Macs.

... teachers could wind up their Day of Action downtown

THERE’S A GOOD chance that if you’re out and about throughout the city on Friday, you’re going to run into a teacher or two (dozen or so). They want to build up support for the strike they’re likely going to take on in coming months.

The one that will cause classes to be cancelled for more than just a day like they will be on Friday.

Because the simple fact is this – parents may be able to express a symbolic support for the teachers union when the issues are all theoretical.

But the moment it turns into those parents having to arrange for special day-care to watch their kids while at work because classes are cancelled, it becomes a massive inconvenience.

AND YES, THERE will be some (many, actually) parents who will just as soon blame the teachers for not showing up for work.

This pre-strike, so to speak, is meant to build up enough good will with so many interests that they will have their friends all geared up for the good fight that could come.

Ultimately, it's all up to Rahm

And who knows? Perhaps the sight of an afternoon rally from the University of Illinois at Chicago campus to the Thompson Center state government building (where they’ll ride the subway to get from college to the government building) will be enough of an intimidating spectacle.

One that would actually persuade the Chicago Public Schools officials (and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, their spiritual leader) to make the kind of concessions that would actually urge the union not to walk off the job sometime later this year.

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EXTRA: Do we trust teachers more than cops? Or just hate Rahm Emanuel?

All the poll results the Chicago Tribune has published this week are meant to convey a single image – Mayor Rahm Emanuel is standing in a deep pile of doggie doo.

EMANUEL: "Boo!", says the polls

His personal approval rating is barely over a quarter of Chicagoans, people have little faith in the police department he oversees and they think so little of him that they’re willing to back the Chicago Teachers Union in their ongoing labor dispute with the mayor.

FOR THE RECORD, some 70 percent of Chicagoans say they don’t believe the Police Department provides equal protection to all city residents and visitors.

And as for the teachers’ union, it seems that for every person who sides with Emanuel in the attempts to negotiate a new contract, three people think the union is correct.

Then, of course, there is the other 20 percent who either have no opinion or are undecided. In short, the people who are clueless – just like the roughly 10 percent who couldn’t say “yea” or “nay” to the question about police providing equal protection.

I have to confess to being amazed at the idea of 60 percent of those surveyed siding with the Chicago Teachers Union, compared to 20 percent for Emanuel.

IF THERE REALLY was such strong support for the union, you’d think that Emanuel would not have done so well in last year’s municipal election cycle.

After all, the teachers union made it clear all along that they wanted Emanuel out of the mayor’s office. They were always the strongest backer of Jesus Garcia’s mayoral aspirations. You’d think they could have beat him.

Instead, while Emanuel didn’t get to win re-election without enduring a run-off election, there was never really a sense that he was going to lose.

Do we really trust teachers union more than police? ...

But Emanuel is now in the pile of pig poop caused by the impression of all those young black boys (they aren’t really old enough to be called ‘men’ yet) being gunned down in cold blood. It would seem some people are just expressing the knee-jerk negative thought toward Emanuel – no matter what the issue.

EVEN THOUGH I’M not convinced that the Chicago Police are any more racist or vicious toward black people than law enforcement officers in any other parts of the country, the issue is being called out now in Chicago.

... Or do we just despite Mayor Rahm that much?!?

Which probably is a good thing if it forces a serious discussion of what perceptions are permitted to be held by our police officers. It probably is a discussion needed nationwide – which is why the true racists would prefer to go overboard in discussing Chicago’s problem.

It means they can ignore the problem in their back yard. Just like those residents of lily-white communities that have NO black people going out of their way to say Chicago is the most-segregated city in the nation.

I did find it interesting that the polls showed even a majority of white people surveyed (53 percent) admitted Chicago police do NOT treat all people fairly – compared to 85 percent of black people who expressed the same sentiment.

BUT WE DO have a split in opinion. That same poll showed 59 percent of white people surveyed think Emanuel is able to address the problem of racial taint within the police department, while 61 percent of black people think he is not capable of doing so.

Whereas with the schools, some 35 percent of white people backed Emanuel in the teachers’ union dispute, compared to 42 percent siding with the union. Those figures get worse among black and Latino people (for the latter, only 13 percent would say they back Emanuel).

The target of all of this week's Tribune polls. Photograph by Gregory Tejeda

We probably don’t think much of Mayor Rahm these days. Although I still say we probably don’t really trust anybody, which is the mayor’s saving grace.

Anybody who tried to replace Rahm as mayor would wind up becoming even more detested than Emanuel is these days. Not exactly the right pitch to attract a would-be replacement, presuming the mayor could ever be urged to walk away from his post prior to the 2019 election cycle.

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