By Rebeca Nieves Huffman, DFER Illinois State Director
Grab your portable fans, people; we are in for a hot summer. Chicagoans are bracing themselves for a teacher’s strike, something we haven’t experienced since 1987. For folks outside Illinois, here are the highlights:
- Chicago Public Schools (CPS) offered teachers a 2% raise … Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) demanded 29%.
- Earlier in the year, the district didn’t provide teachers with a promised 4% raise. At the same time, they rolled out a plan for a longer school day next school year. This combo didn’t go over well.
- Like many other states and school districts, we are in a financial crisis. Pension reform has collapsed while the district has a $700M budget deficit making it difficult to significantly raise teachers’ salaries.
- In the creation of Senate Bill 7 (which incorporates performance into personnel decisions), the CTU developed a process for collective bargaining that brings in an independent third party mediator to conduct a 65-day fact finding process that culminates in a compromise proposal. Makes perfect sense, right? Well …
In a strategic move last week, the Chicago Teachers Union took an early strike vote authorization. They’ve essentially empowered their union leadership to set a strike date by proxy as contract negotiations with the independent mediator continue. With the way the CTU leadership and its allies have been conducting business since the city elected a new mayor (and with it, new Chicago Public Schools’ leadership), this act is like handing over the keys to a reckless driver.
As an organization that believes that the Democratic Party is supposed to stand up for the little guy, this situation makes us shake our heads. Our city’s students are the little guys. More broadly, DFER couldn’t sit idly by and watch the political theatrics continue as our students’ education and safety hang in the balance.