Coverage of the CTU & SEIU Strike

October 24, 2019 At 8 o’clock Wednesday morning, hundreds of CTU members from the North Side gathered at the Swissotel in downtown Chicago. From there, with over 30,000 additional CTU and SEIU members, they converged on the Thompson Center and City Hall, where Mayor Lightfoot delivered the first budget address of her term. The address, which Lightfoot described as “a values statement f...

CTU bargaining updates Oct. 25 and 26 October 26, 2019 Friday night, CTU President Jesse Sharkey said in a press conference that bargaining between CPS and CTU now primarily concerns the issues most important to the latter party: smaller class sizes, fair pay and benefits, fully staffed schools, and school community justice. This may have contributed to the talks’ slow progress. “I...

October 28, 2019 Student-led demonstrations outside City Hall on Monday marked the eighth day of the CTU’s longest strike since 1987. After a weekend of bargaining, the city has yet to reach an agreement with the Teachers Union despite reaching a tentative settlement with SEIU Local 73, the union representing bus aides, custodians, security officers and special education classroom assistants. The SEIU, h...

October 31, 2019 Late Wednesday night, the CTU House of Delegates approved a tentative agreement, 364-242, that Mayor Lori Lightfoot, CTU President Jesse Sharkey and Vice President Stacy Davis-Gates have agreed is nothing less than historic educational justice: for the first time in CTU collective bargaining history, there are enforceable class size caps and staffing guidelines, including a nurse a...

Both CPS and the CTU concur that the tentative agreement — which CPS CEO Janice Jackson described as a “strong and fair deal that results in a very generous raise and improvements in [teachers’] working conditions,” and that CTU President Jesse Sharkey described as “[recognizing] and [valuing] the voice and experience of Chicago educators” —  represents an unprecedented investment in Chicago...