Article updated: 9/12/2012 5:49 PM

Chicago teachers union president is brash advocate

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On Sunday night, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, right, tells reporters outside the union's headquarters that the city's 25,000 public school teachers will walk the picket line Monday morning.

Associated Press

A large group of Chicago public school teachers marches past John Marshall Metropolitan High School on Wednesday on the city's West Side.

Associated Press

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She's brash and blunt, the tough-talking union leader who has taken on Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a bitter contract dispute regarded as a referendum on the future of the nation's third-largest school district. But Karen Lewis is also a whip-smart Ivy League graduate with a long, distinguished record in the classroom and the overwhelming support of her union's 30,000 members.

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