Chicago, IL – “The charter schools are working educators to the bone, yet still not adequately staffing our classrooms. This isn’t fair to the students or the teachers, and we’re not going to take it,” states Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) Charter Division Chairman Chris Baehrend.

UNO/Acero management has continued to stall in negotiations on key points that include class size, appropriate and reasonable staffing levels and equal pay for equal work, prioritizing CEO pay at the expense of special education funding and smaller class sizes.

According to a CTU statement, “Our bargaining team will continue to bargain in good faith, and we’ve scheduled two more bargaining sessions before Thanksgiving break.”

CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates spelled it out at a November 14 press conference, “The union men and women here today have made it clear that they are prepared to fight for school communities that are fully funded, ones that prioritize educational funding over CEO pay while eliminating management fees that marginalize our classrooms and rob our students.”

Gates continued, “For too long, the charter industry has had the freedom to marginalize the workers in our schools – and the audacity to promise parents one thing while offering students and their families far less. Today we're fighting to change that status quo, through our right to bargain collectively, withhold our work and demand that education dollars actually make it into our school communities instead of being stolen away by top managers who devalue the cultural and educational needs of our students and the vital teachers and paraprofessionals who work tirelessly to educate and support them.”

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #Strikes #TeachersUnions #UNOAcero