The Chicago Teachers Union said today that its members authorized union leadership to call a strike if contract talks break down, but any strike would have to be announced 10 days in advance, the Chicago Tribune reports.
That makes October 11 the first possible date for a strike. The union has been in contract negotiations with Chicago Public Schools for a while now, but this is the first vote that would authorize a strike. Both the school board and the union’s House of Delegates are scheduled to meet on September 28. And while the meeting agenda isn’t available, one can only assume the strike vote will be on everyone’s mind at both meetings.
“A strike is a very serious step that affects the lives of thousands of parents and children, and we hope that before taking the final steps toward a strike, the CTU’s leadership works hard at the bargaining table to reach a fair deal,” the paper quoted a CPS spokeswoman as saying.
Union members are upset over the request in the current contract proposal that teachers pay more into their pension plans, WLS-TV (ABC affiliate) reported. According to a story in USA Today, the teachers have been working without a contract for more than a year, and the school district now picks up the bulk of teachers’ contributions to their pension plan.
The strike authorization vote “should come as no surprise to the board, the mayor, or parents because educators have been angry about the school-based cuts that have hurt special education students, reduced librarians, counselors, social workers and teachers’ aides, and eliminated thousands of teaching positions,” the paper quoted the union as saying in a statement.
WGN-TV talked for a bit with Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, asking him if he thought Illinois’s recent budget impasse, which resulted in the loss of a considerable number of after-school programs, especially in Chicago, was contributing to the escalation of violence seen this year in the city. Violence due to gang activity and drug wars, he answered, dismissing the question, is directly related to a lack of opportunity.
“We in Illinois have not invested properly, effectively, in our schools,” the station quoted him as saying about the upsurge in violence around the country, including in Illinois. “We have inadequate schools in too many of our communities, number one. That takes away opportunity to be well educated and well trained for careers for our young people. And number two, we have not created economic opportunity for all the people of Illinois.”
He said Indiana had added more than 80,000 manufacturing jobs since the recession ended, and these are well-paying jobs. “Let me be clear: The number one problem we have for the long term—whether that comes to violence or poverty or low incomes or anything else—is lack of economic opportunity. And that comes from lack of being competitive here in Illinois. We have got to make Illinois competitive to attract more jobs and more economic growth.”
A strike would be a tragedy, Mr Rauner was quoted as saying. Chicago teachers last walked off the job in September 2012, striking at the time for seven school days and causing some publishers to call on Illinois’s legislature to pass a law banning teachers’ strikes.
According to Fox News, the district, which serves about 400,000 students and is the nation’s third-largest, is experiencing serious financial problems. Credit rating agencies have put the district at “junk” status, and the recently passed $5.4 billion budget relies heavily on increased property taxes, borrowing, and $215 million in state money contingent on a statewide pension overhaul. None of that may materialize.
The news site quoted schools CEO Forrest Claypool as saying that if the state doesn’t come through, the district will have to cut money from classrooms, and that has also caused teachers some concern in these latest negotiations.