Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis says Mayor Rahm Emanuel “exploded” at her during a conversation in his office about his signature longer-school-day effort, pointing his finger at her, yelling and telling her, “F— you, Lewis.”
“I just want to call it immense disrespect for me and the Chicago Teachers Union,’’ Lewis told the Chicago Sun-Times Friday. “I didn’t appreciate the way he talked to me.”
Are you all ripped up inside about this? I mean, I am all ripped up inside about this. I bet you that whoever put this up at Hot Air Headlines is just as ripped up inside about this as I am, too. I mean, how dare the Mayor suggest that teachers work an extra ninety minutes a day, with a mere 2% pay increase to cover it! After all, the starting salary is only $50,557/year… OK, so it’s actually $50,577/38.6 weeks, at 6.25 hours/day. Or $42/hour. Admittedly, the new arrangement is a hit in salary: more gross, but per/hour goes down to $34.50, assuming that I did the math right – but Chicago is looking at a 635.7 million budget deficit this year. The well is, as they say, dry.
And I think that the public sector union folks had better start realizing that. Because, past history aside, when it comes to Rahm Emanuel (or any other Democratic elected offiical) explicitly telling a Big Labor bigwig “F— you” I for one will not be rooting for injuries. I’d rather that a Republican was doing it, of course, but I’ll take what I can get.
Moe Lane (crosspost)