About 25,000 Chicago educators are on the picket lines this week, waving signs with slogans like, 鈥淥n strike for my students鈥� and 鈥淪top the cuts.鈥�
Teachers in the nation鈥檚 third-largest school system are fighting for salary increases, enforceable caps on class sizes, and a written commitment for more nurses, social workers, and librarians. They are also demanding investments in affordable housing, which some say falls outside the scope of collective bargaining. Teachers are joined by 7,500 support staff, like bus aides and special education assistants, who also went on strike Oct. 17, in a separate contract dispute.
鈥淲e want to be in our schools, but sometimes you have to take a hard step in order to get what鈥檚 right,鈥� said Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey in a press conference announcing the strike was indeed taking place.
District officials said schools will remain open for the duration of the strike so the 300,000 students affected鈥攎any of whom are from low-income families鈥攈ave a safe place to go and access to meals. Even so, all instruction will be canceled. On the first day of the strike, just 7,500 students came to school, according to district reports.
Chicago teachers staged a one-day walkout in 2016, but the last time they went on a strike was in 2012. That strike lasted a week. It remains to be seen how long teachers will stand on the picket lines this time鈥攂ut so far, the two sides seem far apart on several key issues.
鈥淲e want to make this a short strike,鈥� Sharkey said, but 鈥渨e鈥檝e got a ways to go.鈥�
A 鈥楬istoric鈥� Offer?
The day before teachers took to the picket lines, district leaders maintained the school system cannot afford all the union鈥檚 demands.
鈥淎t every turn, we bent over backwards to meet the union鈥檚 needs,鈥� Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who oversees bargaining for the district, told reporters, expressing her frustration that the union is not 鈥渟atisfied鈥� with what she calls a 鈥渉istoric offer.鈥�
CTU is asking for a 15 percent teacher raise over three years and for paraprofessionals, who are represented by the union, to receive a significant raise as well. The union has demanded a nurse in every school and for the district to hire more social workers, counselors, and librarians. CTU also wants enforceable class-size limitations but has said it would be open to phasing in lower class sizes, starting with the neediest schools.
In return, the district has offered a 16 percent raise for teachers over five years and an average raise of about 8 percent for paraprofessionals this school year. The district has agreed to put $9 million toward reducing class sizes. Lightfoot and district leadership also pledged to put a full-time nurse in every school by 2024 and add 200 more social workers over five years. They recently promised an additional $400,000 a year to recruit, hire, and develop nurses, social workers, and special education case managers.
District leaders say they agree with many of the union鈥檚 demands. But bargaining has been complicated by a state law that says the Chicago district does not have to bargain over class sizes and staffing levels鈥攖he issues that the union contends are the most critical. Teachers have demanded that the district put its promises in writing, but the district has wanted to maintain flexibility with its spending.
Fighting for Students
Days before the strike, however, Lightfoot switched gears and said she would be willing to put some commitments on class sizes and staffing directly into the contract. The union said it received a written proposal on class size from the district on the strike鈥檚 first day, but it didn鈥檛 go far enough.
鈥淭hat would be a game-changer in the relationship between the parties,鈥� said Robert Bruno, a labor professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. However, he said, a lot has yet to be figured out: 鈥淲hat would be a level of staffing that the mayor would be willing to put in the contract? What can the city afford?鈥�
Also, 鈥淲hat language exactly would be used so these provisions could be enforced under the law?鈥� Bruno continued. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not easy to do, particularly in a short window, and unfortunately, this breakthrough came late.鈥�
On the first day of the strike, educators clad in red marched through the streets of Chicago, chanting, cheering, and ringing bells.
鈥淲hat we鈥檙e trying to do with this contract right now is to right a lot of historical wrongs,鈥� said Kenzo Shibata, a high school civics teacher who鈥檚 on the CTU鈥檚 executive board and bargaining team.
The union is also asking for the city to invest in affordable housing for educators and students. More than 16,000 students in the district experienced homelessness last school year.
鈥淚f a student doesn鈥檛 feel safe, they can鈥檛 learn,鈥� Shibata said.
Lightfoot has said affordable housing falls outside the scope of what should be included in collective bargaining, but the district鈥檚 latest offer included some supports for students in temporary living situations.
This strike is about changing policies that hurt the city鈥檚 鈥渕ost vulnerable students,鈥� said Dustin Voss, a social-science teacher at Christian Fenger Academy High School on Chicago鈥檚 South Side. The school is in a neighborhood plagued by gun violence, he said鈥攕everal students have been killed in recent years.
鈥淲e try to spend on social workers and security and deans to keep our students safe,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut that might mean less teachers.鈥�
Because of budgetary tradeoffs, for instance, Voss said students take Spanish classes online, without a teacher. There is no art teacher. There鈥檚 only one science teacher for about 300 students. And some teachers in the school have class sizes of 38 students, he said.
The Chicago Teachers Union has been fighting over these issues鈥攚hich go beyond the bread-and-butter concerns of most labor contracts鈥攆or years, and teachers are hopeful that this strike could be their chance to score some significant victories.
"[Lightfoot] keeps saying it鈥檚 the best offer they鈥檝e ever gotten, and the teachers are offended by it,鈥� Bruno said. 鈥淭heir argument is, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e telling us to just take the money and not worry about anything else, and that would be a betrayal of our professional ethics; it would be a betrayal to our students and to the parents.鈥欌��
Across the country, in both red states and blue cities, teachers have walked out of their classrooms en masse more than a dozen times over the last two years to demand better pay and more money for schools. The public largely got behind teachers, in part because they put student-learning conditions in the spotlight.
In fact, the Chicago teacher strike in 2012 鈥減aved the way in showing [a major strike] could be done and in a way that would keep public support and also have substantial wins鈥� for the union, said Katharine Strunk, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University.
Then, teachers won salary increases and new teaching and counseling positions, and they also prevented the city from implementing a controversial merit-pay system.
A Chicago Sun-Times/ABC7 poll that was conducted about a week before the current strike began found that nearly half of voters surveyed supported a work stoppage. District parents were more likely to support the strike, the poll found.
Still, there鈥檚 always a risk that public support will wane the longer the strike continues, Strunk said.
鈥淣o question, strikes can be very hard for parents and kids,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the working-class parents who can鈥檛 miss work: What do they do when their kindergartner is home from school for a week?鈥�
