A new topic has landed on the bargaining table as the Chicago Teachers Union hammers out a new contract with the Chicago Public Schools: affordable housing.
On Tuesday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said contract negotiations have been held up by the union’s demand that the city implement “CTU’s preferred affordable housing policy as part of their contract.”
The need for affordable housing — even in cities where the cost of living is rising rapidly — isn’t typically something that unions and management go head-to-head on, collective bargaining experts say.
Still, unions fighting for affordable housing is not the only non-traditional negotiating topic on bargaining tables these days. Another topic for negotiation — which the CTU and the city already have agreed to — is stronger sanctuary protections for immigrant students.
The topics typically covered in contract negotiations are pocketbook issues like compensation, health insurance and retirement plans along with working conditions and work rules. Included in the labor dispute between the city and the teacher’s union are pay, staffing shortages and class size.
Increasingly in today’s economy though, housing, social justice and other quality of life issues will be negotiating points in contract talks, according to Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. “It seems like school districts are beginning to see housing affordability as a piece of the puzzle to make their school districts attractive,” he said.
More often though, affordable housing for teachers and other school employees is an issue dealt with at the policy level, with local and state governments dedicating funding to housing.
California, for instance, passed a law in 2016 allowing school districts to use state tax credits to help fund affordable housing developments for teachers.
“It’s certainly true that in education the topics have expanded,” Bruno said. “They are probably more a product of the changing economic realities.”
crshropshire@chicagotribune.com
