SEIU janitors might engage in one-day sympathy strike for Chicago Teachers Union

SEIU protester, 2009.

Although the Taft-Hartley Act limits sympathy strikes, apparently SEIU Local 1 plans on hold one on Friday in support of the Chicago Teachers Union.

From WBEZ:

In a show of solidarity, some janitors may be joining Chicago teachers on the picket lines.

Tom Balanoff, president of SEIU Local 1, says many of the 1,500 janitors who work in Chicago public schools have wanted to join striking teachers. Balanoff says he’s now filed a notice that could make that possible.

"On Friday, there very well may be Local 1 members—janitors—who will stand outside and support the teachers instead of go to work."

Balanoff was among more than a dozen union leaders, representing everyone from nurses to electricians to police, who voiced support for striking teachers yesterday. State and national teachers union officials were there as well, including Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, the parent union of the Chicago Teachers Union. They spoke outside Chicago Public Schools headquarters.

Balanoff was the conduit between the Obama and Blagojevich camps as the hair-brained one schemed to fill Obama's US Senate seat. The president has long ties to SEIU and he once vowed to "paint the nation purple with SEIU."

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Chicago school students won't be in class again today.

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