Chicago teachers ready to strike, union says

An overwhelming majority of Chicago Teachers Union members would walk off the job if a strike vote were taken, the union reported in describing preliminary results of a mock vote taken of the membership.

About 97 percent of members voting - with 95 percent participation among the 27,000 union members casting ballots in the mock vote taken on Nov. 5 - said to strike, the union said.

"We are very pleased and not at all surprised by what we've learned," union spokeswoman Stephanie Gadlin said in an email last week. She called the poll an "internal union exercise" that was "designed to test the CTU's organizational bandwidth." She added that final analysis was still being prepared.

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