Rahm Attacked By Trumka ; Fails to Get Dick Durbin's Support

Bloomberg reports:

Organized labor is a critical component of Democratic support in the city, and national union officials have come to the defense of the Chicago Teachers Union and its 26,000 members. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Emanuel’s contract proposal “does not provide the elements necessary to ensure success for Chicago’s students or educators.”

Emanuel also failed to get support from one of his prominent former colleagues in Congress, where he served before becoming President Barack Obama’s chief of staff. Rather than choose sides in the dispute, Dick Durbin, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, said “Chicago’s students deserve better.”

“Instead of getting an education, these kids are being put in the middle of a fight between adults,” Durbin, of Illinois, said in an e-mailed statement from Washington.

The struggles of trying to keep the Democrat party together before November.