Chicago schools were closed Monday for Columbus and Indigenous Peoples Day, but the big looming question remains whether they will be closed on Thursday for a teachers strike.
School district and union officials said Monday’s talks offered notable progress on two key issues, but there was still little sense whether a deal could land in time to avert the Chicago Teachers Union’s Thursday strike deadline.
“It was only today — today, sisters and brothers, today — that we had a meaningful conversation about class size and staffing,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey said during a rally Monday to hundreds of supporters gathered at the Chicago Temple building in the Loop.
“As of right now, we do not have a contract,” he said. “And as the hour gets later, our chances of getting a contract before there is a strike narrow and become more remote.”
Sources said CPS and the union hope to reach a deal, if one is to be had, during a full day of scheduled negotiations on Tuesday.
If a potential tentative agreement is reached, union delegates could meet Wednesday to consider calling off the strike. But it’s still not clear that the sides can reach a compromise.
“I’m going to stay negotiating. I’m going to try to avoid a strike,” Sharkey said Monday. “We want a fair settlement without a strike, to be clear. But if it requires a strike for us to win educational justice in this city, if it requires a strike to get the ‘noes’ at the bargaining table to turn to ‘yeses,’ if that’s what it takes … then our union will show our unity and show our strength.”
Among others delivering impassioned remarks at the rally was American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who nodded to the 2012 teachers strike under Mayor Rahm Emanuel in her comments.
“I don’t care if you work for the parks department or you work in a school, we are all educators and we’re about to teach the new mayor a lesson,” Weingarten declared.
About 35,000 teachers, school and bus aides, custodians, security guards and Chicago Park District employees could simultaneously walk out Thursday without new contract deals.
Prior to Monday’s rally, Mayor Lori Lightfoot posted a new video listing off several items that she said the city has proposed or enhanced in its “historic” offer to the teachers union.
She said the city agreed to drop a proposal on class prep time after talking to teachers and is offering more support for overcrowded classrooms and $400,000 toward a pipeline for more nurses and counselors. Lightfoot also cited “new language on restorative justice” and a moratorium on new charter schools.
“I believe there’s more that unites us than divides us,” Lightfoot said. “And to all who will be taking part in today’s rally, I want you to know that we hear you, and I respect what you stand for. My office is taking every step to ensure that you are safe and supported.”
Later, an official in her administration told the Tribune that Monday’s bargaining was “productive.” The union gave the administration a “framework” for staffing and class size, and Lightfoot’s team provided a “a full response to their class size and staffing offer.”
That put the ball back into the union’s court, the source said, and both sides were expected to return to the bargaining table after the rally.
Politicians at CTU’s rally included City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin; aldermen Felix Cardona, Silvana Tabares, Matt Martin, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, Byron Sigcho-Lopez, Daniel La Spata and Andre Vasquez; and Cook County commissioners Brandon Johnson and Alma Anaya.
The rhetoric remained fiery at the union rally, with Sharkey questioning Lightfoot’s commitment to educational justice promises she made on the campaign trail, when the CTU was supporting her opponent.
“You’d think if that was really in her heart, if that were really in her soul, she would have offered educational justice first,” Sharkey said.
Yet even that marked a shift from Friday, when the union blasted new offers on staffing and class sizes as “half-baked and wholly deficient.”
Over the weekend, the union said it had modified its demands on those two key issues and was willing to accept a phase-in of measures to lower maximum class sizes and to increase staffing of social workers, case managers and school nurses. The union still wants specific staffing numbers outlined in the contract.
Despite the progress, over the weekend the union continued to pressure the mayor on social media. Late Sunday, the CTU’s Facebook page shared video of a Lightfoot speech from when she was still a candidate for mayor in January. In it, she talked about her equity-focused education policy plan and specifically mentioned staffing schools with full-time nurses, social workers and librarians. Lightfoot has already made promises and budgeted for hundreds more positions, but the union wants them written into the contract.
“She was elected on our platform,” stated the CTU’s post. “Now it’s time for the mayor to accept our path forward — teachers, case managers, (support staff), clinicians, librarians and nurses — for the schools our students deserve.”
Lightfoot chief of staff Maurice Classen sent police Superintendent Eddie Johnson a memo on Sunday asking police to protect the unions’ freedom of speech rights and help make sure rallies and any potential strikes go smoothly.
Classen wrote that “it is of paramount importance that that the city and its peace officers do everything practicable to protect the rights of CTU and (Service Employees International Union) members to express their opinions within the boundaries of the law.”
“The mayor and I remain optimistic that we can resolve each of these labor negotiations before the 17th,” Classen added. “Regardless, (Monday’s) rally — and the potential strikes — represent an opportunity for Chicagoans to see how we can use protests and the expression of First Amendment rights to openly discuss and resolve our differences.”
A coalition from the Chicago Teachers and Staff Solidarity Campaign also planned a rally and press conference Tuesday morning at City Hall to give the mayor a statement of union support from parents and neighborhood groups.
