Chicago, IL – On the snowy Thursday evening of November 21, the chambers of the Chicago Temple were heated up by the fighting spirits of over 1500 school staff, students and community members. The rally was organized by the Chicago Teachers Union to demand the settlement of its contract with Chicago Public Schools, which is made more urgent by Trump's intentions to dismantle the federal Department of Education.

“We need leadership of Chicago Public Schools who will protect us from Trump and his troops,” declared CTU President Stacy Davis Gates.

Four months after the expiration of the 2019 contract, CPS, under the leadership of CEO Pedro Martinez, has refused to budge on many of CTU’s contract proposals which would defend Chicago’s public schools from Trump's racist, bigoted and anti-education agenda.

“We need this contract before January 20 so we can protect our local communities from federal attacks,” said Corey Blake, a music teacher and co-chair of CTU’s LGBTQIA+ Committee.

Speakers also connected Trump's policies to the decades long neoliberal campaign to defund public schools all over the country, which has manifested in hundreds of school closures in Chicago since 2000.

“If Trump succeeds, many more schools will have to close,” said Angelica Jaurez, a parent at Fuentes Elementary School.

In October, Acero Charter Schools announced plans to close seven of its campuses, including Fuentes, by the end of the school year, a decision which would leave 2000 students and 200 teachers without a school.

The instability and lack of accountability of charter schools like Acero is the future envisioned by Trump and others who want to dismantle the public school system. In opposition are CTU and its contract demands, which Southside high school student organizer Catelyn Savado described as “a love letter to the people of Chicago.”

CTU brought 750 proposals to the bargaining table in April on issues ranging from raises that keep up with inflation, to restorative justice and improving school buildings. Neoliberal politicians and corporate media have criticized the contract proposals for demanding too much money from the city. CPS CEO Pedro Martinez sent a mass email on the day of the rally complaining about the increases to the school budget that the contract proposals would necessitate.

CTU responded by explaining how negotiations have advanced beyond Martinez's description, which they referred to as “a reckless PR stunt” in a statement released on Friday, and speakers at the Thursday rally argued that the contract proposals simply address the needs of Chicago's children.

6th Ward Alderman William Hall outlined the contradiction between the budgetary priorities of the Chicago neoliberal establishment and the needs of the people, stating, “We have $1.5 billion for prisons, yet we still can't find $1 billion to educate our children.”

Speakers also highlighted previous contract victories that CTU won through militant action, including air conditioning in schools, smaller class sizes, and sanctuary schools for immigrant families. While the CTU has an ally rather than an enemy in the mayor’s office for the first time in decades, they are still facing neoliberal politicians, CPS bureaucracy and millions of corporate dollars organized through right-wing groups like the Illinois Policy Institute and the Illinois Network of Charter Schools.

“Be encouraged when they send millions of dollars to beat you because they're scared of you,” Teachers Pension Fund Trustee Quentin Washington said about the $6 million spent by INCS and similar organizations on the November 5 school board elections. Despite being vastly outspent, candidates supported by the CTU-led Our Schools Coalition won four of ten elected positions as opposed to three won by charter school interests.

“Republicans, right wingers, and neoliberals do not get to win,” Savado said. “One thing we have that they don't have is people power!”

“From Gaza to Little Village to Altgeld and all over the country, the children are all ours, every single one of them, and it is our duty to fight for all of them,” said music teacher Kathryn Zamarrón, describing the need for solidarity between local, national and international struggles.

“The call to action is not just to tweet or cry and hug about it. The call to action is solidarity,” said Davis Gates, summing up the fighting unity between the many diverse communities represented by the rally’s speakers and crowd.

After the rally, the union members and supporters marched several blocks to Federal Plaza. Chants demanding a fair contract and calling for Pedro Martinez to “get out the way” echoed through the downtown streets.

CTU aims to settle this contract using tactics of militance and solidarity, and wants it done before Trump's inauguration on January 20, a day which will see protests in Washington DC, Chicago and around the U.S.

#ChicagoIL #ChicagoTeachersUnion #CTU #CPS #UnionPower #LaborRights #Trump #Feature

Chicago, IL – Teaching artists and school office staff at Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts) have voted to join the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), June 3. Three office staff voted to join the union, and later in the day, part-time arts teachers – who make up the backbone of the school’s programs in the visual arts, music, theater, dance and creative writing conservatories voted 75% (41 yes to 14 no ) to join the union.

“It’s a joy and an honor to welcome these new members into the CTU family,” said CTU President Jesse Sharkey. “This school doesn’t run without its office staff and its teaching artists, and this vote is their embrace of organizing in unity to improve working conditions for educators and learning conditions for ChiArts students.”

Stagnant wages, lack of job security and basic rights fueled the push by teaching artists to join the union, the same way those conditions pushed full-time educators to join the CTU in 2018. Since that time, with the first negotiated contract under their belt, ChiArts CTU members have seen wages and working conditions improve, school staff stabilize and educators given a voice at the table.

By joining the union, the school’s teaching artists and main office staff seek the same basic rights and valued voice as their union colleagues at the school.

The vote came despite relentless pressure from management to reject unionizing and joining the CTU.

“I feel a great sense of pride and joy in being a part of this effort with my colleagues,” said Patrick Lentz, visual arts department assistant and teaching artist. “It has been really enjoyable building relationships and connecting with one another. What we have created in terms of solidarity across our conservatories and school is powerful. No amount of anti-union letters can make a dent in the sense of community that has come out of our organizing.”

ChiArts is a CPS “contract” school. Similar to charter schools, contract schools are publicly-funded but privately-run institutions. ChiArts receives funding from CPS, along with private donations, and admits public school students into its intensive visual and performing arts program. But, like charters, the school is governed by a separate administration, has its own board, and operates independently.

The teaching artists are essential to ChiArts mission to provide creative programming for budding student artists. While the school’s full-time educators have had job security and other union protections since 2018, until today, the school’s artist teachers could be fired with impunity.

Rounds of unilateral decisions from management and chronic job insecurity spurred the organizing drive by ChiArts teaching artists. Without union protections, these educators, who are critical to the ChiArts mission, could be fired for no reason, regardless of their value to the school community. Workers also viewed unionizing as a fundamental way of supporting students’ agency and growth going forward.

“As an alumni of ChiArts, I want to provide the best education to the students – and that's not possible if I, as a teacher, am not being treated fairly,” said music teaching artist Kurt Shelby. “I can't give the students what they need if I don't have what I need. This union effort and the sense of community that has been built has restored my hope for the future.”

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #TeachersUnions

Chicago, IL – Members of the Chicago Teachers Union’s House of Delegates voted to end a four-day remote learning action and return to school. The union announced today that by a vote of 55.5% in favor that the union would accept an agreement with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s handpicked school board.

Teachers returned on Tuesday, January 11 to get tested and encourage parents to sign their children up for COVID-19 testing at the school. Students returned the today for in person instruction.

Chicago Mayor Lightfoot escalated the action when she locked teachers out hours after the remote action began. CTU members were moved to act during spiking COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. The rising crisis highlighted the mayor’s unwillingness to spend federal dollars on testing as well as other safeguards.

Lightfoot appoints all members of the Chicago Board of Education as well as the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health. The mayor has been more than willing to use these officials to do the bidding of big business during the pandemic. “Don’t bother me with the facts, just keep these schools open,” has been her policy as well as the policy of her hand-picked Health Commissioner Allison Arwady, the chair of her Board of Education, Miguel Del Valler and all the Chicago big business roundtable talking heads.

In the face of this CTU took action. They recognized the inequality in the system while they stood up for themselves, but more importantly they stood up for their students and their families. “For too long our Black and Latino schools have been given the short end of the stick and this pandemic​ has been no different,” said high school social studies teacher Saul Garcia, “I stood for this action because I went through CPS community schools and now as a teacher I have seen the inequities that are in these neighborhood schools populated by oppressed nationality students of color. A disproportionate number of oppressed people of color are the ones being infected and dying and our mayor still wants to say that our schools are the safest place for our students.”

The union fight succeeded in making some changes to increase testing, masking and the ability to move back to remote learning when extreme conditions hit. “It’s difficult to name a victory when we had to fight for the most basic protections. But fight we did! We further exposed Lightfoot and her team as being entirely devoted to the interests of capital despite the somewhat progressive platform she ran on. Sometimes fighting when the odds are against us and getting others to see the truth in stark clarity are the biggest wins,” said CTU Delegate Elijah Eilier.

The Chicago Teachers Union took militant actions to support students in the district schools and in the charter schools. They should be applauded as an example of class struggle unionism.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #TeachersUnions #ChicagoTeachersUnion

Chicago, IL – On Tuesday, January 4, more than 73% of teachers in Chicago who are represented by Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) voted to not return to classrooms on Wednesday, and instead taught their classes remotely to keep the teachers, staff and students safe as the pandemic surges. As the Omicron variant intensifies, the current positivity rate for COVID-19 in Chicago is at 23% and climbing.

Article 14-1 of the teachers’ union contract allows for the union members to assert their right to “safe and healthful conditions” at work which the union says it is doing. However, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot promptly responded by locking over 300,000 students and more than 25,000 teachers out of all virtual classrooms on Wednesday. In fact Lightfoot’s lockout even includes stopping remote learning at the Virtual Academy, which was already Chicago Public Schools (CPS) remote-only school. The lockout which began January 5 has now continued into a second day.

As has been a pattern in recent negotiations with Lightfoot’s CPS, the mayor attempts to shame teachers who are fighting to keep the students safe. However, at the bargaining table the union says it has seen more movement than they had seen in the last few months, as a result of the actions the teachers are taking.

On January 5 the teachers held a press conference at Union Park followed by a car caravan to City Hall. Hundreds of cars filled with teachers, staff, parents and students joined the caravan in support of the teachers fight for student and staff safety.

The vast majority of students in the CPS system are Black, Latino and from low-income communities where vaccination rates are low. While the teachers themselves are vaccinated to a high degree, the student body is much less so, with vaccination rates in many cases well below 50%.

The teachers want to work and teach and are willing to do so remotely to keep everyone safe. While teacher safety is a real concern, the larger concern for the teachers is keeping their students safe from the highly contagious variant ravaging the Chicago area at an alarming rate right now.

While much focus has been on the Chicago Public Schools, similar conditions and fights for safety are happening at area charter schools operated by 13 charter school companies. Chicago Teachers Union also represents teachers at the charter schools. These fights included sickouts by teachers and demands for remote learning and resulted in lockouts like the one ordered in CPS by Mayor Lightfoot. However, as the teachers held fast to their demands, the lockouts at the charter schools were lifted.

Math teacher and CTU member Valeria Vargas at the charter school Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy said, “Omicron has changed the game. Before this variant we were confidently operating with weekly testing and knowing that 100% of the staff were vaccinated. But now vaccinated people are getting sick and Omicron spreads much faster. Our school is in a predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood where fearmongering around the vaccines has meant that vaccination rates are much lower. We don’t blame the unvaccinated students at all, but we need to keep all of our students safe.”

Vargas continued, “ Our principal has stated that Omicron is mild so it’s ok, but that belief is rooted in ableism and eugenics. Everyone’s health is different. You don’t know someone else’s underlying conditions or health status. We know that in-person learning is best, and we want to teach that way, but right now we need to keep doing remote learning so that we can keep everyone safe. Our survival instinct is being weaponized against us, but the truth is that we know remote learning now is how we can all get back safely to in person learning in the future.”

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #TeachersUnions

On multiple occasions the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) – representing the educators – requested to continue negotiations in good faith. However, Urban Prep management did not agree to meet again until 5:30 p.m. on Monday, June 7, after the strike was already underway.

The educators and Urban Prep management went on to bargain late into Monday night, but Urban Prep refused to compromise on several of the central issues that matter to the educators and students. No deal was reached and the strike continues.

One important sticking point is Urban Prep’s refusing to put students’ special education rights into the labor contract, where they would be enforceable. Management is also demanding an extended period to fire educators even if the educator is highly qualified. Urban Prep charter schools are well known to have a dangerously high turnover of educators.

The CEO of Urban Prep makes nearly as much money for overseeing three charter schools as the Chicago Public Schools CEO makes to oversee more than 500 Chicago public schools. The CTU is calling the question on this abuse of public monies.

In addition, CTU says Urban Prep has a long history of resorting to the use of payday loan terms and ‘sales of future receivables’ contracts with merchant cash advance organizations to finance school operations. It is otherwise unheard of for public schools to enter into these sorts of shady contracts because they come with shockingly high interest rates over time at the public’s and students’ expense. In fact, Urban Prep has paid more than $1.6 million to merchant cash advance businesses.

Urban Prep also received $3 million in forgivable COVID PPP loans, yet the teachers say they see no evidence that those funds have made it to the classroom or been used for education.

The strike is ongoing as public pressure grows on Urban Prep and its CEO.

#ChicagoIL #teachers #strike #Strikes #TeachersUnions #CTU #charterSchools #ChicagoTeachersUnion

Coming out of that latest round of bargaining, CTU announced that all high school staff would work remotely starting on April 14 in the absence of adequate movement at the table, or a recommended agreement on resuming in-person learning in high school buildings.

Only around 25% of students have chosen to return to in-person learning, with strong majorities feeling that it is not safe to return in person, at the same time as a third surge in COVID cases is ramping up every day at an alarming pace. Many students reside in Chicago’s South Side where access to vaccine shots has been particularly hard to come by.

CTU says that CPS has dragged its feet on granting accommodations requests to hundreds of educators, with conditions that make them or family members vulnerable to COVID, life-threatening illnesses, or child care issues, and that CPS is putting those people’s lives in danger.

CTU went on to state that the Chicago Department of Public Health Director Alison Arwady – working at the behest of Mayor Lori Lightfoot – told the CTU at the bargaining table this weekend that she was unconcerned about bringing thousands of unvaccinated teens back into school buildings in a week. CTU likened this to a “ Hunger Games” system of vaccine distribution.

Surrounding states like Michigan have recently ordered pauses to things like indoor dining, sports programs, and in-person learning. In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is still not allowing students aged 16 and up to get the vaccines, even though those are largely the groups in which COVID is currently spreading the fastest.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #TeachersUnions

Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey had this to say about it, “With his signature today, Governor Pritzker has now restored the right to bargain freely for real equity in our public schools and advance our organizing for the common good. The restoration of our fundamental labor rights lies at the heart of Karen’s [previous CTU President Karen Lewis] legacy as a fighter for racial and economic justice and as a fearless advocate for those disenfranchised in our city by systemic racism and multi-generational neglect.

“We owe our students, their families and community allies an enormous debt of gratitude in setting the stage to reverse this unjust 1995 law, passed by a Republican legislature and a Republican governor – and backed by three consecutive mayors.”

The Chicago teachers argue that the Illinois state legislature has another step that they must now take, which is to give Chicagoans the right to elect their own school board as happens in other cities in Illinois. They say that would help bring equity and democracy to Chicago public schools.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #TeachersUnions

The educators with Chicago Teachers Union as well as parents in the affected communities had for months been demanding improvements to remote learning, because that is what would provide the best educational outcomes, but they were largely ignored by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her hand-picked school board. The teachers were unsurprised to find less than 25% of students returning, because they had been talking to parents the whole time and hearing the same concerns.

Less than 50,000 total students returned to class in person even one time between February 11 and March 12, according to the district. CTU says “the mayor didn’t listen. CPS leadership didn’t listen. Yet the numbers speak for themselves. Now, however, is the time for everyone to listen to all families and start to reimagine public education for every child in our district.”

CTU continues to demand that Mayor Lightfoot and the school board commit to collaboration for safe in-person instruction, improved remote learning and the right to recovery from this global health crisis.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #TeachersUnions

Chicago, IL – It was a chilly morning. The temperature was in the low 30s as the educators from Chicago’s Passages Charter School gathered for their press conference, March 5. They were all wearing masks. They all were socially distanced. “We care about our students, we care about their families,” said paraprofessional educator Ann Stella Taylor.

Passages Charter School is as arrogant as they come. First they announced metrics for reopening such as deaths per 100,000 and test positivity rate. They said that they want to use the metrics of the Illinois Department of Public Health. The Chicago Teachers Union agreed. The union members knew there was risk, but using these scientific measurements made sense. The risk would be calculated.

Then Passages announced that they were suddenly reopening. They said that the measurements had been met. But they had not. After the union proved that the employer’s math was wrong. Passages then said that they wanted new measurements.

After a long struggle, the union finally agreed. But then Passages said they would not agree to their own proposal. That they would not sign an agreement obligating them to any kind of safety protocols for students, staff or anyone else.

This is especially outrageous because Passages’ parent organization, Asian Human Services, runs healthcare facilities. Its board of rich people seems to care little about the health and safety of anyone. The students at Passages are approximately half African American, 30% Asian and 15% Latino.

The members of the Chicago Teachers Union are fighting back. Despite being ordered into the building yesterday, union members refused. After punching in remotely they attempted to do their work, but the employer shut them out of remote computer access. Those who did lesson plans or other work found out today that they were receiving discipline for serving their students.

The union has vowed to fight the discipline. “We will not go into the building until we have a signed agreement,” said middle school teacher Tessa Simonds.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #TeachersUnions

However, CTU also says that the agreement puts them in a vastly better position than they were in November, when even after months of struggle, the planning and preparation by CPS would have been laughable were it not also so dangerous. They say that school clerks and technology coordinators who had reported safety concerns for months will now have access to vaccines and enforceable safety measures that should have been in place before they had ever been asked to step foot back into the buildings.

A new safety committee will be created which the teachers say they will use to enforce the agreement and organize to ensure that CPS meets safety standards and mitigation protocols. The agreement also lays out gains on accommodations, vaccinations, delayed re-opening, school closing metrics, and more. CTU says that while they did not get what anyone deserves, they instead got what they were able to take through collective action and fighting hard, and that accepting this deal is a way to protect the progress they have made.

This agreement comes after many rank-and-file CTU members were locked out, docked pay or faced discipline as a result of the actions they took to keep people safe. CTU believes that those sacrifices made were a major factor in what made CPS finally negotiate and arrive at the agreement that is now ratified.

As CTU members were voting on the agreement on Tuesday, February 9, CPS began at last to reinstate the workers who they had locked out in retaliation for their collective action.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #ChicagoPublicSchools #TeachersUnions #COVID19

Until the rank-and-file teachers have made a decision, they will continue to teach remotely. CTU says the framework represents progress that they made at the bargaining table. They say it does not win everything that the Chicago school communities deserve but must be evaluated against the uncertainty of a potential lockout and that they only reached this point because of the strength, unity and collective action of the teachers.

In a statement that CTU released on Sunday, February 7, CTU President Jesse Sharkey said, “Because of the twists and turns that negotiations have taken under the direction of Mayor Lightfoot and CPS leadership, I am certain that there will be no further gains without additional action,” and, “It is extremely important to note that, despite what the mayor and her CPS team claim, this is not an agreement between the board and the union. Any agreement is your choice, and your choice alone, to make. This is a framework and we are a democratic union. We don’t reach an agreement until you make that decision.”

Some of the areas in which the teachers made real ground include a phased-in return to in-person classrooms and a set of health metrics to be followed in which schools will pause in-person learning if COVID-19 test positivity rates rise for seven consecutive days, rates exceed 15% positivity, and the rate on the seventh day is at least 10% higher than a week before. This will result in a pause of 14 days, or until the criteria to teach in person has been met again.

They also won an agreement to increase the number of vaccinations that CPS commits to give to teachers and prioritizes those teachers who are most vulnerable or are in areas hit the hardest by the pandemic. If this proposal is accepted, no CTU member will be required to return to in-person teaching without first having the opportunity to be vaccinated. CTU members with medical risks or who are primary caregivers for relatives with medical risk will be granted accommodation requests for telework. A separate side letter will be sent to rescind discipline for ‘AWOL’ cases. Any withheld pay and benefits and discipline concerning parent communication cases are to be handled through resolution of pending litigation.

The vote is expected to happen soon after the rank-and-file teachers have had time to review the full proposal.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #TeachersUnions

Chicago, IL – At 11:15 p.m. on Thursday, February 4, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot walked away from the bargaining table again after instructing her Chicago Public Schools (CPS) leadership team to submit a “last, best and final offer” to the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).

The union and the school system have been bargaining in an attempt to reach a deal over conditions for schools to reopen for in-person learning. The mayor has repeatedly issued ultimatums threatening to lock out teachers if they did not return to school in person. The teachers have instead defied those orders and continued to teach from home. So far, Mayor Lightfoot has backed down twice from her ultimatums and distanced learning has continued.

Now that CPS has walked away from the bargaining table it is unclear what the future holds. CTU has said that the offer is unacceptable and that they are continuing to fight for an agreement that will provide maximum safety for students, educators who serve them, and every family in their school’s communities.

Among many issues which the union says are unacceptable, the “last, best and final” offer that CPS made would pause in-person learning districtwide only if there are COVID-19 outbreaks in 50% of Chicago Public Schools buildings at the same time. The proposal denies remote work accommodations to 75% of educators with household members at high risk for COVID-19. Educators, school clerks and other CPS employees have continued to struggle to access COVID-19 vaccinations, and under the mayor’s plan CPS commits to vaccinating only about 1500 workers per week, with no prioritization of workers who are forced to return first, or who are in the hardest-hit communities. CPS will not make any improvement in remote learning, despite four out of five students remaining remote, and continues to refuse to bargain with the union on the safe reopening of high schools.

CTU leaders say they remain ready to bargain until they land an agreement that allows schools to reopen safely, with real equity for our students and school communities, and that they will continue to remain remote until an agreement is reached, because what they are fighting for is right and necessary.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #TeachersUnions

Mayor Lightfoot had threatened to lock the teachers out as of Tuesday morning if they did not show up for class in person. The teachers have been continuing to teach classes remotely despite increasing pressure from the city to return in person. Monday evening, right on the eve of the lockout and possible strike, Mayor Lightfoot backed down yet again and announced that the lockouts would not happen today and that for the next 48 hours talks would continue to happen and classes would remain remote. This represents another victory for the teachers who have repeatedly refused Mayor Lightfoot’s ultimatums and pushed the date further back through collective action.

CTU President Jesse Sharkey has said repeatedly that the teachers don’t want to strike, and do want to keep teaching, but need to do that remotely until there is an agreement that would allow schools to reopen safely. President Sharkey said, “We are not locked out today or tomorrow because of our members’ unity, their commitment to their school communities and their fearless solidarity.” Sharkey went on to say, “None of this is easy. The uncertainty and risk our educators, our students and our families confront all take a toll. And all of the progress we’ve made to date in winning real gains at the table is possible because of the tireless work and dedication of our rank-and-file members, our strike captains, our delegates, our parents, our allies and ordinary Chicagoans who trust us to do what’s right by our schoolchildren.”

The Chicago Teachers Union has gone on strike against CPS twice in the last ten years and has voted to authorize a strike if needed in order to keep students, staff and teachers safe during the pandemic. Talks are now set to resume for the next 48 hours, during which time teaching will continue to be done remotely.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #TeachersUnions #MayorLoriLightfoot

Many classrooms appeared as if they had not been cleaned since the district’s initial shutdown last March, while in others, window treatments remained covered in dust or with windows that would not stay open at all, despite CPS’ claim that “we worked to ensure every classroom has a working window or a mechanical ventilation system to dilute air particles that may have viruses or bacteria and allow old air to move out of the classroom.”

One school was asking workers whose rooms had no portable HEPA filters to sign a release saying they would not hold the school “liable for any health consequence of been [sic] in the building.”

A common concern was the Intellipure Compact air purifiers provided by the district, which work “best if used in spaces below 500 sq. feet,” according to the company website, but are being deployed by CPS to ‘protect’ much larger classrooms.

“CPS and the mayor are saying that they desperately want to open schools, but in many buildings, they’ve done nothing to make conditions any safer – and that’s without the threat of a pandemic,” Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) President Jesse Sharkey said. “Parents, students, teachers, community groups and elected officials aren’t demanding that CPS and the mayor keep buildings closed; they’re demanding that they exhaust all resources in making schools as safe as possible before reopening.”

More than half of the teachers scheduled to start teaching directly from unsafe school buildings on Monday chose to work remotely.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #ChicagoPublicSchools #PublicSectorUnions #TeachersUnions #MayorLoriLightfoot

Chicago, IL – More than 100 teachers, parents and community members participated in a car caravan, December 12 for safety, equality and trust. Chicago Public Schools has rejected the union’s safety concerns at every turn, refused to bargain to consensus on safety needs, rejected improving its inhumane remote learning program despite months of pleas from parents, students and educators, and fallen woefully short on safety promises they’ve made.

The caravan traveled to city hall, where caravan members delivered pointed criticisms of CPS’ dangerous plan to accommodate the mayor’s insistence on reopening unsafe buildings to students and school staff starting in early January – even as the pandemic is surging.

The union has been seeking to bargain demands for safety, equity and trust with CPS for months.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #ChicagoPublicSchools #TeachersUnions

Chicago, IL – Educators at EPIC Academy College Prep who are seeking to join the Chicago Teachers Union celebrated the afternoon of May 18, when the NLRB – the National Labor Relations Board – blocked their employer’s reckless demand that they hold an in-person union election at the school. Such an election would have forced workers to risk their own health and the health of their loved ones during the shelter-in-place order.

Educators’ relief was tempered by disappointment at the labor board’s ruling to exclude three colleagues, who are security specialists at the school, from the bargaining unit. “We are extremely frustrated with the decision that the security staff at EPIC would be considered guards alone,” said EPIC teacher Quincy Bloem. “These dedicated and kindhearted workers represent the glue that holds EPIC together; they work daily to build strong relationships with students and faculty alike to help make EPIC feel like a second home.”

Andrew Escalante, tenth grade lead teacher at EPIC, said educators will push through in their bid to join the CTU. “This decision will not stop us from establishing our union and working to ensure all members of the EPIC community are being supported.”

With those security specialists excluded, 42 educators will vote on joining the CTU. Ballots will be mailed Friday, May 29 and must be returned by Wednesday, June 24. Ballots will be counted Wednesday, July 1 at 3 p.m.

#ChicagoIL #Healthcare #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #TeachersUnions #charterSchools #EPICAcademyCollegePrep

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With 80% of schools reporting, members have voted 81% yes to ratify the new contract with Chicago Public Schools.

The union won powerful gains for students and their school communities.

Those gains include mandatory class size caps and enforcement, language forcing CPS to comply with special education laws and regulations, sanctuary school protections for immigrant and refugee students, and supports for thousands of homeless students. While today most schools have a nurse barely one day a week, the contract will provide schools with a nurse and a social worker in every school every day. The union also won another freeze on charter expansion, and additional funding for staff that includes librarians and counselors, who now must be allowed to serve only as counselors, not recess supervisors, test proctors or substitute teachers.

The contract will also, at last, lift up teaching assistants, school clerks and other paraprofessionals out of poverty.

“This contract is a powerful advance for our city and our movement for real equity and educational justice for our school communities and the children we serve,” said CTU President Jesse Sharkey. We live in one of the richest cities in the wealthiest nation in the world, and finally Chicago must start investing in the future of our city – our children.”

Moving forward, the union has put some of CPS' most harmful and inequitable education policies squarely in its sights, including ending CPS’ discriminatory ‘student-based budgeting’ formula and the district's racist school ranking system called SQRP. That includes the union's effort to win passage in Springfield for an elected, representative school board, a bill that the House and Senate leadership have vowed to move this spring and the governor has promised to sign, restoring to Chicagoans the same democratic rights that voters in every other school district in the state possess. The union is also pushing legislation to restore CTU members' bargaining rights, which were stripped away in 1995 with the imposition of mayoral control over CPS.

“Our contract fight was about the larger movement to shift values and priorities in Chicago,” said CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates. “Working-class taxpayers in Chicago have paid for skyscrapers that most will never visit – but a school nurse is someone their child in need can see on any day. In a city with immense wealth, corporations have the ability to pay to support the common good.”

#ChicagoIL #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #ChicagoPublicSchools #PublicSectorUnions #Strikes #TeachersUnions #2019ChicagoTeachersStrike

Sarah Chambers is a rank-and-file member of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and a member of their bargaining committee.

Fight Back!: How did this strike compare to 2012? What you were demanding? What was won?

Sarah Chambers: There were a lot of similarities between 2012 and this year’s strike, because we were fighting for a lot of the same things: smaller class sizes, more staffing, wrap-around services, stronger protections.

The biggest difference now is that in 2012, we were fighting austerity. Rahm was trying to steamroll the CTU and gut our contract. This time around, our new mayor, Lori Lightfoot, ran on CTU’s platform. During the strike it became clear she didn’t actually believe in what she campaigned on.

In 2019, we won a lot of these items, even though they were “not strikeable” according to law 4.5 (Section 4.5 of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act) passed in 1995. We were able to win enforceable small class sizes, which don’t exist in almost any contract in Illinois. We were able to win 250 more nurses, 209 more social workers, basically a social worker and nurse in every school. We won homeless student coordinators, which was never in our contract before. We won bilingual coordinators, and a lot more protection for special education and bilingual education, including class size.

One of our biggest wins, which helped us a lot with our allies, was Sanctuary Schools – 10 articles including schools refusing to let ICE into the building in protection of undocumented students.

It’s amazing that with this contract and this fight, we had just as many members out in the street as 2012. We had rallies with 40,000 teachers, workers, parents and allies out fighting for justice. This is one of the most historic contracts in CTU history. It blew away Law 4.5, all these things we weren’t allowed to strike over.

Fight Back!: CTU has more restrictions placed on it by state law than any other public sector union. How did that hamper you?

Chambers: In 1995, the state passed this law that removed mandatory subjects that we could bargain over and strike over. They added more things to it over the years, until it made it so we could only bargain over salary, benefits, preparation time and evaluations. We were not able to bargain over class size or staffing. We’ve been trying to bargain over these items especially since 2012. This law only pertained to Chicago Public Schools, not over the private sector, including the charter schools that are now part of the CTU. This past winter and spring we had a wave of charter school strikes where they were able to bargain and strike over anything.

From that, they won contracts with language about smaller class sizes, increases in staffing. This ended up helping when we were fighting for our contract. So, when CTU members in CPS saw what the charter teachers had won, they said, “We deserve that, too. Why don’t our students deserve smaller class size and more staffing? That put a lot of pressure on Lori and CPS. It showed that teachers were fighting for what’s right for our students, and we’re fighting for justice.

During this strike we’ve been able to win so many of these items that we’ve never won before. And in the last day or two of the strike, [State Senate President] Cullerton, [State House President] Madigan, and [Governor] Pritzker said they all would be supporting the elected school board bill and supporting the removal of 4.5. This has been an historic win for us, and I think a lot of our political work, and the charter school strikes helped us achieve this.

Fight Back!: After the 2012 strike, what was the impact on the rest of the class struggle in Chicago? What do you expect to happen now?

Chambers: After the 2012 strike, Rahm Emanuel’s image was really hurt, because people in Chicago, around the country, and the parents supported the teachers, and saw that we were fighting for what’s right and for the students. Before and during this strike, the polling showed that the teachers and the union had even more support. Before we struck, Lori, even after being in office only a few months, her polling was only at 54%. During the strike, Lori said she wasn’t budging on our major issues of class size and staffing. But by the end of the strike, we were able to win some of those things. This was only due to the intense struggle, the strong picket lines, rallies, and civil disobedience. Lightfoot eventually caved.

Lori said she was going to be different than Rahm Emanuel, that she would support the schools and public services. But she continued to give $2.4 billion to Lincoln Yards and the 78, which is basically a rich people’s playground, instead of giving money to our schools. We were only able to take money out of the TIF [Tax Increment Financing] funds after days of striking. I believe after the strike that Lori will be a one-term mayor, because her popularity has plummeted, and she doesn’t have the political connections the Rahm Emanuel had.

Fight Back!: When we interviewed you just before the strike ended, you said “No matter what is in the contract, we know we’ll have to continue to organize and fight in the schools, the communities and the streets.” The vote in the House of Delegates was fairly close – a 60 40 split. Will the union be able to unite? Will that division hinder your post contract struggle?

Chambers: Even though we won this historic contract with a lot of new articles and protection, we know that CPS will try to break our contract. There are many articles in our contract now, such as Special Education laws, that many principals are currently breaking. Our saying is that CPS and Lori will do whatever we let them get away with. We have to ensure that we continue organizing in our schools, with the parents and the community to uphold our contract article and ensure that they’re following them.

What that looks like in our schools is making sure we organize our committees, making sure we’re meeting with parents in the Local School Councils, and putting pressure on CPS to make sure they’re upholding our contract.

Even though the vote in the HOD was fairly close, I believe that the ratification vote will be a higher percentage yes after the members fully read through the tentative agreement and fully understand what it means. I know that the union will be united around organizing to uphold our contract and around other current fights that we have to pick with CPS.

Fight Back!: Will you continue to see SEIU Local 73 unite with CTU?

Chambers: The unity between CTU and SEIU Local 73 was very strong on the picket lines. Our brothers, sisters, and siblings in 73 were some of the strongest on the picket lines, they kept the energy up. I foresee that continuing within our schools, and fighting for justice. I also know that November 22 – 24, there’s a big conference of the re-founding of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. I know a lot of CTU members and SEIU members are interested in going to that conference and participating in continuing the fight for our Black and Latino students and continuing the fight for Black liberation overall.

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The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 went on strike together with the CTU. Local 73 ended their strike after seven days but refused to return to work until CTU had a contract. The two unions will picket Thursday morning, and then rally at 10:00 at City Hall to demand that Mayor Lori Lightfoot extend the school year so students won’t miss ten days of instruction.

Over 30,000 teachers and workers went out on strike on October 17 in a fight for decent contracts, wage increases for the lowest-paid workers, but mainly to demand an end to the system of educa-tional apartheid. Only 10% of the students in CPS are white, and those are mainly in the selective en-rollment schools. The working class Black and Latino communities have suffered through decades of inadequate funding, and in recent decades, the privatization of public education to the benefit of in-vestors.

On Tuesday, October 29, the striking teachers marched thousands strong to the site of the Lincoln Yards development. This will be the location of 1200 new housing units, which will be too expensive for most Chicagoans to afford. The development is being built on the edge of the wealthiest part of the city, Lincoln Park. It is constructed with over $1 billion of tax money that has been siphoned away from the schools and other needs of the city. This Tax Increment Financing (TIF) process is supposed to be used to help develop economically blighted areas, but almost none of the TIF money has done that. For years, these funds have been gifts to the wealthiest developers in the city, who also make big do-nations to politicians.

CTU organized the march to demand that Mayor Lori Lightfoot assign $38 million dollars from the bil-lions in the TIF funds to meet the basic needs for Chicago Public School students to help fund a nurse, a social worker and a library in every school.

While this was happening, a smaller group of educators held a sit-in at the offices of the Lincoln Yards developer, Sterling Bay. Nine were arrested when they refused police orders to leave the offices. The teachers were demanding that Sterling Bay give back $38 million of what they received from Lightfoot in order to close the deal.

From defensive to offensive

This strike is different than 2012 or 2016. In 2012, CTU struck against Mayor Rahm Emmanuel’s attacks, such as his taking away a 4% contractual raise the year before the strike, raising class sizes even more, and over the years forcing them to teach to standardized testing.

According to Sarah Chambers, a member of the 40-person bargaining committee, and a special educa-tion teacher, “This tentative agreement has a lot of historic wins we’ve never had in any contract, in-cluding enforceable class size caps, a nurse in every school every day, sanctuary schools, and bilingual class size language. And most of these items were non strikeable issues by Illinois State Law 4.5.”

She ended, “No matter what is in the contract, we know we’ll have to continue to organize and fight in the schools, the communities and the streets.”

This year, in the words of Vice President Stacy Davis Gates, the demands in this contract showed that “Black people on the South Side and the West Side want the same things as white parents in this city.” Most white people in Chicago left the Chicago Public Schools 50 years ago for Catholic and other pri-vate schools.

SEIU Local 73 again a fighting union

In addition to the CTU and the fight for the needs of students, this strike has featured the rising of the Service Employees International Union Local 73, representing 7500 of the lowest-paid workers in the schools: bus aides, janitors, Special Education Classroom Assistants (SECAs) and security guards. In their first-ever CPS strike, these workers won raises of at least 16% over a five-year contract. SECAs will get language stopping them from having to oversee recess or the lunchroom instead of working with kids who need extra help.

Local 73 has a new leadership group under President Dian Palmer. In 2012, the union undercut the CTU strike by accepting a deal with CPS one week before the strike began. This time around, Local 73 rose along with the teachers against the continued attacks on public education.

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