AFT Probes Charges in Chicago Union Election

By Ann Bradley

High-ranking officials of the American Federation of Teachers held a hearing in Chicago last week to examine allegations that the city's teachers' union held an unfair election last spring.

Deborah Lynch Walsh, who lost to Thomas H. Reece in her bid for the presidency of the 30,000-member Chicago Teachers Union, asked the national union in June to look into the local affiliate's voting procedures. ( "Union Election Puts Reform on Chicago Ballot," May 15, 1996.)

Last month, the AFT's executive council authorized the investigation by two vice presidents, Herb Magidson and James McGarvey. But officials cautioned that the probe...