Emanuel Takes a Hit on School Days

An Illinois labor authority ruled 5-0 Thursday that Mayor Rahm Emanuel should be stopped in his pursuit of a longer school day this year.

The Illinois Educational Labor Relations board unanimously agreed with a complaint by the Chicago Teacher's Union that Emanuel's aggressive strategy for convincing Chicago Public Schools to break from their union contract, take a lump sum payment and add 90-minutes to the school day deserves an injunction and the attention of the Attorney General.

The board plans to write an injunction and make a recommendation to the AG.

If attorney general Lisa Madigan agrees that Emanuel has used manipulation, coercion and threats to sway 13 schools to move to a longer schedule in exchange for compensation and gifts, she could petition a Cook County judge to grant a relief.

The teacher's union would like to wait until 2012 to implement a longer school day and takes issue with Emanuel's get-it-done-now approach. From AP:

The union alleges the school board engaged in unfair labor practices and hasn't bargained in good faith in pushing for the longer school day a year ahead of when new state legislation will allow for it anyway. The union accuses principals of telling teachers their schools would close if they didn't side with Emanuel, ordering union representatives out of their buildings and allowing non-teachers to vote.

The labor board found last week that the union's allegations warranted a full hearing, set for Dec. 14.

Teachers union attorney Robert Bloch told labor board members Thursday that the Chicago Board of Education "would end collective bargaining as we know it in in Illinois" if it's allowed to continue its current push for a longer day.