Chicago, IL – Students in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) stayed home and learned remotely again on Thursday, January 28. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) continued to demand that any return to in-person learning be done in a safe way. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had ordered all teachers back to the classroom on Wednesday the 27th but was forced to backtrack and tell parents to keep their kids home again Thursday.

CPS has been demanding that 80% of school staff return in person and has refused to allow accommodations for staff who live in households with people who are in high-risk categories according to the Centers for Disease Control. CPS has also refused to provide weekly testing for unvaccinated staff and students at schools. In binding arbitration on October 2, CPS was ordered to allow school clerks and technology coordinators to work remotely, but the school system has yet to comply with that order.

The Chicago Teachers Union is seeking a health metric based on CDC guidance, a phased reopening, access to vaccinations for educators, and enforceable safety standards in school buildings, which have struggled to meet even basic needs for PPE, adequate ventilation and clean facilities. Because Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s CPS team has refused to offer vaccinations to educators before ordering them into school buildings, and has not been willing to agree to a phased-in resumption of in-person learning, the Chicago Teachers Union has now publicly called for mediation to resolve the impasse.

The teachers say that they continue to teach and want to continue to teach safely. To that end, their union has proposed critical precautions necessary for a safe return to in-person learning, but all of those precautions have been rejected by the Board of Education.

CTU President Jesse Sharkey said, “We are willing to keep teaching, but CPS has said they will lock us out. We are willing to keep negotiating, but CPS has refused to back down from insisting that 80% of educators and support staff return on February 1 to serve fewer than 20% of the students. Another 10,000 of our members became eligible for vaccinations on January 25. We can make schools safe with a phased reopening and enhanced COVID-19 testing for members of school communities.”

“It’s obvious to everyone but CPS and the mayor that parents aren’t sending their children back because they do not believe schools are safe or that COVID is under control,” said CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates. “This is especially true for Black and brown families. CPS does not need 80% of educators back in school to serve 19% of students. This makes no sense in a pandemic that continues to infect one in eight people in many of the Black and brown Chicago neighborhoods that have already shouldered a disproportionate burden of COVID disease and death. Our families want safety. Our educators want safety, yet CPS continues to refuse to negotiate an agreement that builds in that safety, and instead, has threatened to lock out tens of thousands of educators who have a right to safe workplaces to educate our schoolchildren.”

Only 19% of eligible students returned to pre-K and special education cluster programs on January 11, and in some cases teachers are being told to come in to schools in which not one family has opted in to the hybrid model in person learning, which shows that there is broad agreement in the community that the current CPS plan is not safe.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #teachers #union #TeachersUnions #CTU #pandemic #COVID

The event was sponsored by the Hennepin County AFSCME Policy Committee, representing six AFSCME unions and over 5000 county workers.

The gathering was scheduled one day before Hennepin County Board of Commissioners were slated to authorize layoffs, mandatory furloughs, and other cuts to Hennepin County worker benefits.

These measures were delayed but will likely come before the board in the coming weeks.

What layoffs at the county would mean for the community

Proposed staffing cuts stand to roll back vital community services at a time when county residents are facing devastation from both the pandemic and the unfolding economic crisis.

The county has already permanently closed eight libraries and plans layoffs in the department along with other direct service areas such as probation. Layoff proposals stand to deepen existing racial disparities in the county and undermine the county’s recent initiative to approach racism as a public health crisis.

“Hennepin County is based on the premise of serving residents,” says Latonya Reeves, president of AFSCME Hennepin County Policy Committee and AFSMCE Local 552. “Frontline staff have worked with remarkable adaptability during these difficult times to provide excellent, efficient services to residents.

We want to ensure continued access to services amidst the ongoing pandemic, civil unrest and uncertain times for the BIPOC community and all the communities we serve. Cutting staff means limiting services and we don’t want that.”

Support for working parents

Across the country, COVID-related childcare issues are forcing parents, particularly women and women of color, out of the workforce at alarming rates.

According to recent government statistics, 617,000 women left the workforce in September alone, compared with only 78,000 men. One in four women are considering leaving the workforce, says McKinsey's and LeanIn's Women in the Workplace report. AFSCME is awaiting county-specific data but know that mothers are being hit hard.

Speaking to her experience as a county worker and mother, AFSCME Local 2822 Vice President Jayne Mikulay stated, “As a single parent I have exhausted my federal COVID FMLA leave and I have no option of remote work. I need to support my son’s distance learning and I am now being forced to take unpaid leave. I am being penalized as a woman and single parent for not having the ability to do two jobs at once.”

Women who are able to work from home find themselves in an impossible situation as well. “We are forced to choose between supporting our children, helping them educationally, paying bills and work,” says Aimee Wimberly, a county financial worker and single mother whose been working remotely since March. The AFSCME Local 34 member went on to say, “It seems the county is going out of their way to create more obstacles for us and controlling our schedules in a way that allows us no flexibility. Forcing us into using leaves that pay us significantly less than our wages and putting us into financial distress.

AFSCME is calling on the county to expand childcare leave for those who’ve run out, supplement existing federal childcare leave which only covers two-thirds of parent’s and caregivers regular pay, and create county-sponsored daycare centers.”

Safety

Workers who must work onsite are demanding increased safety measures on the job. Workers at least two Hennepin County Libraries, Minneapolis Central in downtown Minneapolis and Washburn Library, have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past weeks.

There are probably many more cases. Speaking to their experience with COVID-19, one worker wrote, “I went to the ER for asthma-related symptoms and tested positive for COVID-19. I had a bad case and was transferred to Bethesda Hospital in Saint Paul. That first day I spent worrying if my co-workers would be informed that they should get tested. It angers me that I may have unknowingly spread the virus to my co-workers, and to the patrons who visit the library. Especially when there are things that the county can be doing but are choosing not to do: such as mandatory notification of positive cases, mandatory testing and temperature checks and verbal screenings at the door, common sense things the union has been pushing for.”

Responding to the union’s request for these additional safety measures, Labor Relations Representative Kathy Megarry stated that only in “unique circumstances” would staff be notified of positive cases in the workplace. Workers at Target and other retail areas are routinely informed of positive cases.

Retaliation

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Hennepin County workers have been voicing their health and safety concerns by speaking publicly at Hennepin County commissioner meetings.

In some areas, such as the Department of Community Corrections, the response has been silence or intimidation.

Speaking out against a rushed return to work plan in Adult Probation, AFSCME 2822 Steward Susannah Olson observed, “Mothers and employees with health concerns were given two or three days’ notice of their new schedule in the office. After speaking up at the county board meeting and filing a class action grievance, asking for a one-week extension of the return to work date, so mothers could find child care, I received a ‘coaching’ session the very next day. The coaching session questioned my union activity.”

During a meeting with AFSCME union representatives on September 16, Mark Thompson, assistant county administrator of public safety, threatened layoffs if support staff continue their advocacy.

AFSCME is calling for an end to retaliation for all those who speak out and for the removal of the coaching letter for Sue Olson and no discipline for the others.

#MinneapolisMN #PoorPeoplesMovements #AFSCME #HennepinCounty #COVID #HennepinCountyAFSCMEPolicyCommittee