Chicago union signals it won’t accept Chicago Public Schools' ‘final offer’ on reopening

CHICAGO — Chicago Public Schools and Mayor Lori Lightfoot say they have made their “last, best, and final offer” to the Chicago Teachers Union over a plan to reopen schools as the coronavirus pandemic continues. But the union has already indicated the offer isn’t good enough.

Lightfoot and CPS CEO Janice Jackson Friday morning sent a joint statement announcing that after receiving the CTU’s latest counter proposal Thursday afternoon, they had responded with the last offer they will be making.

“We expect a response from CTU leadership today,” Jackson and Lightfoot said. “We will be making further statements later today about school on Monday.”

The latest developments appeared to diminish the chances that a deal to avoid a teachers strike is within reach.

In a letter to members Friday afternoon, CTU leaders accused Lightfoot of walking away from the table and said it viewed her latest offer as “a threat to cut all students off from schooling unless educators drop all remaining demands.”

The city’s offer would require COVID-19 outbreaks in half of Chicago Public Schools buildings in order to pause in-person learning districtwide, and only agrees to remote work accommodations for 25% of members who have household members with high-risk medical conditions, according to CTU. The union is pushing for reopening and closing decisions to be based on CDC indicators for lower risk of transmission in schools, which includes a 5% positivity rate.

The union is also not satisfied with the district’s commitment to provide vaccines for 1,500 employees per week, and said the city is refusing to increase the portion of vaccine doses allocated to educators as its own supply increases.

“Under that schedule, educators forced back into buildings could still be waiting until June for vaccinations through CPS, months after the mayor proposes to fully reopen school buildings,” according to CTU.

“CPS will not make any improvement in remote learning, despite four out of five students remaining remote, and despite months of pleas from parents and educators for a more enriching school day,” the letter to members continued. “CPS rejected proposed reduction in screen time for students, and refused additional technology supports to families, or allowing local schools any say in creating more humane schedules to meet student needs.”

The district’s decision to lock out first-wave educators who refused to work in person has left some special education students without qualified teachers, according to CTU.

“To say we’re deeply disappointed that the mayor has chosen to end negotiations and instead move to lock out educators and shut down schools rather than work out our differences is an understatement,” the letter continued.

The union is ready to keep negotiating, but will not accept the offer.

“Three times in the past week, the mayor has drawn a line in the sand, and three times, our solidarity and our commitment has forced her and CPS leadership to step over that line,” the letter concluded. “Stay strong. Stay united. Raise your fighting voices even louder. Watch for updates for weekend actions on Saturday and Sunday and stay the course. We remain remote until we land an agreement, because what we’re fighting for is right and necessary.”

Lightfoot has spent days insisting that a deal must be made or else, without any consequence to the union when her deadlines come and go. CTU has been clear it considered her timetable for reopening elementary schools by Feb. 1 to have been arbitrary and treated it as such. When both sides couldn’t reach a deal over the weekend, she instituted a “cooling off” period but still wasn’t able to land an agreement.

On Thursday, the mayor held a news conference to declare her patience had dissipated and a deal must be reached by end of day. In this latest standoff, Lightfoot has not followed through on any of her disciplinary threats.

Union members have backed a resolution to walk off the job if the city instigates widespread lockouts or other disciplinary actions against the large percentage of teachers who have so far refused since January to comply with district expectations that they work in school buildings.

After a similar ultimatum was given leading up to the 2019 teachers strike, CTU President Jesse Sharkey said it wasn’t clear to him if the city had thought through the effect of such a statement on bargaining.

“That’s a line in the sand, that’s a take it or leave it, and today they tried to walk that back,” Sharkey said at the time.

Friday morning, elected officials at all levels of government spoke at a virtual news conference in support of the CTU.

Without getting into specific details, Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson called CPS’s latest response “somewhat troubling.”

“What they are attempting to do is say that they’re done and they’re not attempting to really negotiate with us on the key critical issues that are really outstanding,” Johnson said. “What I can say pretty clearly is the mayor and Chicago Public Schools are determined to punish those teachers who have been locked out.”

Johnson said the district’s actions seem “incredibly anti-union.”

“For a town and a city like Chicago where the labor movement has a rich history, to have the public schools as well as the fifth floor attack the workers and laborers like this is quite egregious,” he said.

Johnson said the city had also still not made a “real commitment” to a phase-in and vaccination plan for transitioning back to in-person school.

While negotiations are still happening, he said, “there has not been enough give in this moment.”

State Rep. Lindsey LaPointe referenced a letter nearly two dozen state lawmakers sent Lightfoot on Thursday.

“We know that we can get to an agreement on a safe return that works for everybody,” LaPointe said. “It’s difficult to understand how we have reached this impasse here today. This is an unnecessary showdown. We all agree that the teachers and students deserve safe classrooms. We know that teachers want to continue to work. We know that teachers have been working.”

But while an agreement is necessary, a hasty reentry could have a devastating effect, LaPointe said.

LaPointe’s description of an “unnecessary showdown” resonated with Alderman Maria Hadden. “That’s how I feel and I know that’s how residents of the 49th Ward feel,” Hadden said, calling for the “public good” to be put before private interests and personal egos and pointing out that not only have other cities reached reopening agreements with their school districts, some charter operators have done so with CTU.

“It boggles my mind to see more energy and more vitriol directed toward teachers and toward school reopening than toward corrupt policing systems,” Hadden said. “This is the wrong fight.”