Chicago Teachers Union officials are calling Marc Wigler “a spy,’’ a “stool pigeon” and a “rat’’ following his April 24 ouster for life from the union for allegedly feeding a top Chicago Public Schools labor official information about an internal union meeting.
Former Chicago Teachers Union member Marc Wigler exits the Operating Engineers union hall on May 9, 2012, after he was told he had to leave because he is no longer a member of the union. A few weeks earlier, the CTU executive board had voted to expel Wigler for life from the union following the discovery that he had been reporting from the House of Delegates meetings by email to executives of the Chicago Public Schools administration. Wigler, a former union staff member, had been serving as a delegate representing "citywide" teachers prior to his expulsion. Substance photo by John Kugler.
Less than one month after he was convicted in a union court of spying for the boss, former Chicago Teachers Union member Marc Wigler attempted to enter the union's May 9, 2012 House of Delegates meeting at the Operating Engineers Union hall and had to be escorted out of the building by building security. Wigler entered during the rush of more than 700 delegates from across the city and tried to secure a delegate's badge at approximately 4:15 p.m. on the day of the meeting. He was identified by several union members who were familiar with the fact that a few weeks earlier he had been voted out of the union for life by a majority vote of the union's executive board.
CROSS POSTED @ http://www.substancenews.net/...
Wigler had been identified through emails he had sent to Chicago Public Schools labor relations chief Rachel Resnick reporting on the activities during the House of Delegates meetings a few weeks earlier. The emails had been provided to the union in an unrelated matter, and some of them were reports by Wigler to Resnick. After confirming the authenticity of the emails, the executive board was convened in a special meeting and after reviewing the evidence voted to expel Wigler from the union for life, several sources in the leadership confirmed to Substance.
Although the boss's spy Marc Wigler tried to cover up his United Progressive Caucus (UPC) tee shirt when he spotted a Substance camera as he was being ejected from the May 9, 2012 meeting, he couldn't also cover the back of the shirt, which proclaims that the UPC (the name of which appears on the front) has been "protecting members' rights" (sic). Above, Wigler leaving the area of the union meeting on May 9, 2012. Substance photo by John Kugler.
Wigler arrived at the May 9 meeting wearing his red "United Progressive Caucus" tee shirt, and after talking with UPC members leafleting against the leadership outside the union meeting, he went inside accompanied by a friend who was a legitimate delegate. A CTU officer and a CTU sergeant at arms confronted Wigler and informed him that he had no further right to attend union meetings or other functions, and reminded him that his expulsion had been for life. After a brief confrontation, Wigler was escorted out of the union hall by building security. (The CTU holds its month House of Delegates meetings at the Operating Engineers union hall on S. Grove St. near Chicago's Chinatown).
One of Wigler’s bullet points to Resnick noted that delegates were told, “Stop telling [CPS labor lawyer James] Franczyk everything and stop running to the Board and telling your principals everything,’’ said CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey.
The email allegedly began, “Here are my notes from yesterday’s [House of Delegates] meeting. If you have any questions, please ask. Wigler.’’
Wigler, who earned $85,000 last year as a resource teacher working in multiple schools, declined to comment Tuesday when reached in the CPS PreK for All office.
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Prior to the confrontation on May 9, union executive board members had asked that the matter not be discussed publicly. Once Wigler attempted his May 9 action, the situation became public information.
Before he was spotted and told to leave the union meeting, Marc Wigler tried to get a delegate's credential from the district supervisors. Substance photo by John Kugler.
Under the Constitution and By-Laws of the Chicago Teachers Union, the union has the power to police its own ranks. Union members who violate union ethics can be brought before the executive board and tried. Historically, such trials have rarely taken place. The main times in history when they have taken place have been following strikes, when the union has put on trial all union members who crossed the picket lines. Those people, known as "Scabs" or strikebreakers during the strike, are allowed to explain their behavior and if they wish, to pay a significant fine and reinstate themselves into union membership. Most scabs refuse to repent and remain designated as "SB" on union membership lists forever ("SB" is the computer designation for strikebreaker).
Marc Wigler (above, at the April 15 meeting of the Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates) is a former elementary school teacher now working for the Chicago Teachers Union's QUEST Center at a salary (with benefits) of more than $120,000 per year. Wigler has testified as a witness for the Chicago Board of Education during hearings which could result in the firing of four tenured veteran teachers from Chicago's Wells High School. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.
Historically, there have been a few instances where union members have crossed picket lines under extraordinary circumstances. During one lengthy strike during the 1980s, a north side teacher known to Substance at the time was ordered by a circuit court judge to "work" during a strike so that he could continue to pay court-ordered child support payments from an earlier divorce. Immediately after that strike ended, the teacher paid the fine, which was the equivalent to the total amount of money he had been paid while scabbing, and was reinstated in the union. The teacher had been told by the divorce court judge that he could either "work" during the strike and pay the child support or go to jail. It was one of the most unusual examples in CTU history of the complexity of such matters.
Very few scabs have had such legitimate reasons.
Wigler eventually left the union building and the sidewalk outside, although he did stop briefly to talk with his colleagues from the "United Progressive Caucus" who had been distributing their monthly leaflet attacking the leadership and again making charges against some members of the union staff. He did not join the UPC people at Connie's Pizza after the meeting, as far as Substance could determine. Substance does not have Wigler's contact information and so was not able to get a response on deadline for this article.
Marc Wigler, a former Chicago teacher who works for the Chicago Teachers Union in a $100,000 per year job, is in charge of the "Fresh Start" program that helped the Chicago Board of Education fire veteran (and tenured) Wells High School teacher Harriet Walczak. Above, on the same day that Chicago Board of Education voted to fire Ms. Walczak, Wigler spent part of his day trying to be militant at two protests organized by CTU President Marilyn Stewart, where he took a bullhorn and spoke about "union" matters standing in front of the Chicago Board of Education's downtown Chicago building. Wigler neglected to mention that part of his job is to help the boss destroy teacher seniority and tenure, through "Fresh Start." Wigler was not present later in the day when the Board of Education voted unanimously to fire Wells High School teacher Harriet Walczak, despite a 100 page hearing officer transcript and report proving that the "Fresh Start" attack on Walczak was wrong and a recommendation from the hearing officer that Walczak NOT be fired. Because of Fresh Start, the Chicago school board can ignore a hearing officer's recommendation and fire any tenured teacher it wants to fire at "Fresh Start" schools, with the blessings of the current CTU leadership and the assistance of Wigler on behalf of the CTU. Substance photo by Garth Liebhaber.
This guy has been a rat and traitor to the Union for many years here are some other acts against the membership he was involved in.
'Fresh Start' being used to destroy tenure... Chicago Teachers Union Official Testifies Against Union Members at Chicago Board Termination Hearing
April 18, 2009
The Chicago Board of Education — with the help of the Chicago Teachers Union — is proceeding with the State of Illinois administrative process to permanently fire four tenured teachers from Wells High School. One of the star witnesses for management in the case of the “Wells Four” is Marc Wigler, who heads the Chicago Teachers Union’s Fresh Start program at the CTU Quest Center.
The “Wells Four” are four tenured teachers who were removed from their positions at Wells High School last June after the controversial Fresh Start program allowed CPS to claim that it had the right to fire even tenured teachers after a period of so-called “mentoring” that utilized the services of teachers who had little or no knowledge of high school teaching in the fields of the tenured teachers facing the problems.
Harriet Walczak (an English Teacher with 33 years) is one of the four tenured teachers removed from their teaching assignments last year. She is now facing the formal Illinois State Board of Education administrative process to be removed as a Chicago public school teacher.
The other three teachers David Kaplan (Math Teacher, 22 years), Alsice Moy (Science Teacher, 24 years), and Anna Maria Farkas (Science Teacher, 8 years, who is also a trained medical surgeon) are scheduled to go before State hearings later this spring.
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SOLIDARITY FOREVER: 'Turnaround' commotion hides the firing of another tenured teacher who was victim of the CTU's teacher bashing 'Fresh Start' program
February 27, 2010
Less than five minutes before they voted to subject five all-black Chicago public schools to the ruthless "turnaround" procedure (in which all teachers, the principal, and other staff are fired under a draconian version of the discredited 'reconstitution' program), the seven members of the Chicago Board of Education took an action that has as much of a long-term impact on teachers across the USA — and which unmasks the hypocrisy of the leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). They fired a veteran and tenured teacher — despite a favorable recommendation from a State of Illinois Hearing Officer that the teacher not be fired — under a program called "Fresh Start" which they manage jointly with the Chicago Teachers Union.
The destruction of seniority and teacher tenure protections that had taken more than a century to create was one step closer, thanks to the work of the Chicago Board of Education and the subservience of the leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Another piece of the Chicago Plan for corporate control over public education in the USA was nailed more firmly in place, and Substance is the only news organization to report it.
By a unanimous vote, without discussion or debate, the Chicago Board of Education voted on February 24, 2010, to "dismiss" Wells High School teacher Harriet Walczak, a veteran English teacher with more than 30 years seniority and with tenure.
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Part of the massive confusion among supporters of the Chicago Teachers Union has arisen since June 2010 (when the union leadership changed) because of the policies, politics, and practices of the union leadership under former President Marilyn Stewart. Recently, legislators were uncertain about the legislative position the union on charter schools in 2011 because the CTU position on charter schools had been rendered unclear during the six years Marilyn Stewart was CEO of CTU. Another example of the confusion came in relation to "Advance Illinois," which promoted the anti-union and anti-teacher "Performance Counts" legislation that was defeated by union action in Springfield last month. During one heated internal union debate, some partisans were critical of City Clerk Miguel Del Valle because he is on the Board of Advance Illinois. But Del Valle was only taking signals from Marilyn Stewart and the CTU leadership. Above, Stewart and Marc Wigler were photographed attending the Advance Illinois breakfast featuring Arne Duncan on June 19, 2009, supporting the Advance Illinois and Duncan agendas and cheering after each of the four main speeches. Was it any wonder that many political leaders thought the CTU was on one side at one time? Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.