Lori Lightfoot

CTU Rallies Support as Strike Deadline Looms

A strike date has been set for Oct. 17 if the CPS and CTU can't come to an agreement

School board President Miguel Del Valle joined the negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools on Thursday, but both sides have yet to agree on a contract that would prevent a planned work stoppage that could begin next week.

“We are at the table to bargain and negotiate, but we are also prepared to strike,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey said after negotiations wrapped up for the day. “(There was) not enough progress today.”

Del Valle joined the negotiations for the first time in the bargaining process on Thursday, but the two sides remained apart on a deal with a strike date looming on Oct. 17.

As pressure mounts and the deadline approaches, students are left wondering what impact a potential strike could have on them both in the classroom and even in their futures.

“Decisions should be made already. There should be an agreement,” student Miracle Boyd said. “I have already experienced my school closing, and now my teachers are about to strike. It’s just like ‘where does it end?’”

Boyd is concerned that a strike would mean she’d miss important deadlines as she prepares to go to college next year.

“If teachers strike next week, my teachers will be out and I’ll be graduating late,” she said.

CPS and Mayor Lori Lightfoot are standing by the city’s current proposal, which includes a 16-percent pay raise for teachers, but the union is demanding more than money, calling for sufficient support staff, including more nurses and case workers in schools.

Lightfoot expressed frustration with the pace of negotiations, saying that the two sides need to present clear objectives that they are looking to achieve during their conversations.

“We can’t bargain alone,” she said. “We have to have them come to the table in a constructive way with a written, comprehensive counter-proposal.”

Sharkey and the teachers’ union are willing to keep negotiating, but they too are frustrated with the way their conversations with CPS officials have gone.

“We’ll work as long as it takes, but right now we’re not seeing the progress we need to see,” he said.

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