Chicago teachers strike for fair contract

Teachers, paraprofessionals and school clinicians have been without a labor agreement since June of this year. Strikers have scheduled a rally for Monday afternoon in front of school district headquarters.

Union leaders expressed disappointment in the district’s refusal to concede on issues involving compensation, job security and resources for their 400,000 students.

“Negotiations have been intense but productive, however we have failed to reach an agreement that will prevent a labor strike,” Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said. “This is a difficult decision and one we hoped we could avoid. Throughout these negotiations I have remained hopeful but determined. We must do things differently in this city if we are to provide our students with the education they so rightfully deserve."

Bargaining had been productive in many areas, Lewis said.

“We have successfully won concessions for nursing mothers and have put more than 500 of our members back to work. We have restored some of the art, music, world language, technology and physical education classes to many of our students. The Board also agreed that we will now have textbooks on the first day of school rather than have our students and teachers wait up to six weeks before receiving instructional materials.

“Recognizing the Board’s fiscal woes, we are not far apart on compensation. However, we are apart on benefits. We want to maintain the existing health benefits.

“Another concern is evaluation procedures. After the initial phase-in of the new evaluation system it could result in 6,000 teachers (or nearly 30 percent of our members) being discharged within one or two years. This is unacceptable. We are also concerned that too much of the new evaluations will be based on students’ standardized test scores. This is no way to measure the effectiveness of an educator. Further there are too many factors beyond our control which impact how well some students perform on standardized tests such as poverty, exposure to violence, homelessness, hunger and other social issues beyond our control.”

For more information
Get strike updates on the union website.