The longest Chicago teachers strike in decades ended Thursday, sending students back to classes Friday, after one final standoff between the city and the Chicago Teachers Union over makeup days.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced the end of the walkout Thursday afternoon following a lengthy closed-door meeting with CTU officials. Lightfoot agreed to making up five days lost to the strike, a final sticking point for the union.
As of late Thursday, CPS has not yet determined when the five makeup days will be scheduled.
The strike, which outlasted the latest major CTU work stoppage in 2012 by several days, was officially suspended.
Lightfoot praised the deal as “historic” but lamented that the strike had been “a hardship on way too many people across our city, particularly our young people,” and that it was important to her that classes restart.
“Enough is enough, and so in the spirit of compromise we agreed,” Lightfoot said. “It was a hard-fought discussion. It took us a lot of time to get there. But I think this is the right thing ultimately for our city, and I’m glad that this phase is over.”
The strike began Oct. 17 and took 25,000 CTU members off the job and about 300,000 students out of school. It was the longest against the Chicago Board of Education since a 19-day walkout in 1987.
Now rank-and-file members must vote to ratify or reject the agreement, and the Chicago Board of Education must also sign off on the new deal. CTU President Jesse Sharkey said he’s “not going to say it’s going to be a slam-dunk.”
“Members of the CTU get the final say on that contract,” Sharkey said.
The union’s House of Delegates voted 364-242 in favor of a tentative agreement reached Wednesday, but the issue of make-up days became an 11th-hour glitch when the CTU said the strike ending was contingent on teachers being able to recoup the lost school days, and their accompanying pay for them.
The union representing 7,000 support staff, Service Employees International Union Local 73, also ended their solidarity strike Thursday. SEIU Local 73 on Wednesday ratified a tentative deal reached earlier in the week, but encouraged members to honor CTU picket lines.
A vehement Lightfoot late Wednesday said CTU threw a curveball into the process and was adamant that she would not compensate teachers for strike days. On the strike continuing through Thursday, she said she was “gravely disappointed.”
But Thursday morning, Lightfoot softened her stance and said she would talk about a compromise, although she wouldn’t accept the union’s “unilateral demands.” Lightfoot also expressed anger at the union for not previously raising the make-up days issue as a condition for ending the strike.
CPS CEO Janice Jackson said making up all the days wouldn’t be fair to families, as it would cut into winter break or summer vacation.
“This new demand to make up all the missed days, as I said last night, was never on the table,” Lightfoot said Thursday. “As I’ve said, we cannot allow the CTU leadership to continue to make repeated new demands and move the goalposts unilaterally and repeatedly.”
Sharkey tweeted late Wednesday that return-to-work provisions were always intended to be part of negotiations. But the union agreed to accept a compromise to make up some of the school days.
It’s unclear how and when the days will be made up, according to the union. The days could be added on to the end of the school year, and there could be other in-service days or school holidays converted to attendance days.
But overall, union officials said they were pleased with the outcome of negotiations and there were meaningful improvements in the tentative agreement, a contract the mayor called the most generous in CPS history. The tentative agreement meets many of CTU’s demands, including a process to enforce class size limits, and a nurse and social worker in every school. Lightfoot’s deal also gave the union 16% raises.
One of the bigger wins for the city was the contract’s five-year length. The union wanted a three-year deal.
The union is scheduled to vote in their schools or at CTU headquarters within 10 days after lawyers for both parties land on final language in the tentative agreement.
“We have a better Chicago Public Schools as a result of the last 10 days,” CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates said. Sharkey said the mayor “did the right thing” and kept her campaign promises.
Union officials also voiced some frustration.
Davis Gates called it a “sad day for Chicago that a leader at the highest level of government chooses to punish students with the loss of instructional days and teachers who have fought for justice and equity.”
And she criticized Lightfoot for taking “vengeance” on teachers and students.
“Instead of taking out vengeance on our teachers, she should be high-fiving them, she should be hugging them, she should be saying, ‘Thank you for your courage and your leadership,'” Gates said. “She should be saying to them, ‘Without you, these promises that I made on the campaign trail would have never come true.'”
Sharkey said it wasn’t “a day for photo ops or victory laps.”
“They don’t need to see me smiling with the mayor,” Sharkey said of his membership. “Frankly, it’s been hard on teachers to be out this long, and it’s been hard on parents to be out this long. It’s been hard on our students. And so I just didn’t feel like doing a celebration lap with the mayor.”
On Thursday morning, before the strike was suspended, protesters rallied around City Hall on Chicago’s snowiest Halloween ever in support of the union, chanting for Lightfoot to give in on making up the lost days.
“Lori needs to restore the days, restore the days,” a lively crowd called out.
“Who’s got the power?” a woman yelled into a megaphone. “You got the power,” the crowd yelled back.
Crystal Mallory, a special education teacher on the South Side, said she was willing to brave the weather to fight for her students. Bundled up in layers as snow fell on the crowd, Mallory said she’s the only special education teacher at her school. She estimates one-third of her income goes back to students, partially for supplies.
“You have to stand for something,” she said. “And if I have a choice, I’m standing for kids that need it the most, and those are black and brown kids on the South Side of Chicago.”
Bill Weeks, a special education teacher at Foreman College and Career Academy, said he was happy to see adjustments in the tentative agreement on items such as school nurses and social workers but believes it missed the mark on key issues, like class size.
But “we’re showing the city that we mean business,” he said.
Aaron Talley stood at the corner of Randolph and Clark streets, and said he was getting tired. “I would rather be working with my kids, but at the same time I believe in labor power,” he said.
Meghan Thomas, a history teacher at Von Steuben High School, stood outside City Hall with her sons, who are students at Beaubien Elementary School. Thomas was a teacher during the 2012 strike, but said being a CPS mother has given her a better perspective of both sides. She said she’s satisfied with the tentative agreement.
“It’s really emotionally up and down,” she said. “This is such an important cause and I’m proud to stand behind it, but as a parent and a teacher I realize now the hardships the parents face … both sides are clearer to me.
“We couldn’t have done it without the support of the city,” she added. “I think that a good education system benefits everybody, but it takes everybody to make it good.”
For the past contract days, her sons have been cared for by her husband and their grandparents. The boys have made signs for the rallies and even learned how to crochet.
“I’m going to make my teacher a hat,” Samuel, 8, said excitedly, wearing a multicolored cap and scarf he made during the strike.
In front of the Thompson Center, a band played a lively song with the lyrics: “Hey, Lori, I wanna know will you fund our schools?”
CTU officer Maria Moreno thanked the teachers for standing up for students.
“Now we ask that you take the tentative agreement, read it, share it with every member in your building,” she said, “read every word and determine for yourself, is this the beginning of change in our public schools?”
Chicago Tribune reporters Marie Fazio and Paige Fry contributed.
