Chicago mayor offers olive branch to union leader

A year after 26,000 members of the Chicago Teachers Union walked off the job, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and union President Karen Lewis are expressing a willingness to improve their relationship.

The strike, idling 350,000 students, was marked Tuesday with Emanuel saying he is trying to build a more amenable relationship with Lewis. He says Lewis was recently ill, and he sent her a message wishing her well and suggesting they talk soon.

Although Lewis didn’t reveal her illness, she told the Chicago Sun-Times she is feeling better, and called the mayor’s get-well note an olive branch. She said she is looking forward to a profanity-free conversation with Emanuel about his education policies.

Emanuel reportedly made liberal use of profanity in his first meetings with Lewis, an act he’s never denied.