Union members are supposed to be a rebellious lot. So, it probably comes as no surprise that the rank and file of the Denver teachers union would butt heads with its own leadership when it isn’t going head-to-head with Denver Public Schools’ administration over contract talks.

Yet, there seemed to be more than just a general unruliness driving the challenge to leadership in the latest Denver Classroom Teachers Association election. As noted here recently — and covered in depth by Chalkbeat Colorado — the DCTA has been going through something of an upheaval lately. Mirroring developments in teachers unions elsewhere in the U.S., internal dissent is festering against what some in union ranks see as their leadership’s acquiescence to the school district administration on a range of issues.

Hence, the elections late last month were anything but placid and orderly. On the contrary, a slate of anti-establishment candidates won several seats in the union’s hierarchy. And while the union’s incumbent president, Henry Roman, appeared to hold onto his post, his race was close enough to trigger a recount.

As it turns out, Chalkbeat’s Eric Gorski reports today that Roman has managed to hold onto his seat:

…Roman…held off challenger Tommie Shimrock, a middle school teacher and leader of a slate of progressive, social justice-oriented candidates, according to the union.

Initial results announced last month showed Roman with 906 votes to Shimrock’s 857. The margin was within the 3 percent threshold for an automatic recount.

The recount, conducted Friday night, changed little, according to a union announcement: Roman finished with 905 votes to Shimrock’s 855.

Still, the progressive slate — which grew out of a new caucus within the union — took four of the seven union leadership seats in play, including vice president.

Too close for comfort? And is it a sign the rank and file wants Roman and the remaining members of the union’s establishment to get more political? More radical? In contract talks — and in education policy in general?

The DCTA is a powerful force in Colorado’s largest school district. Could it influence, and unsettle, business as usual at the state’s largest teachers union and one of Colorado’s all-around political heavyweights, the Colorado Education Association?