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Chicago teachers' union delegates extend strike to undertake consultation
Chicago teachers' union extend strike as Emanuel threatens court action
(about 1 hour later)
The confrontation between the Chicago teachers union and Mayor Rahm Emanuel escalated on Sunday when the union extended its strike until at least Tuesday and Emanuel responded by going to court for an injunction to declare the walkout illegal.
The deal between the Chicago teachers' union and the City's school board to end a week long strike unravelled spectacularly on Sunday as the union refused to ratify its negotiator's deal and the mayor threatened to sue the union and force teachers back to work by law.
There will be no classes in Chicago public schools for a sixth day on Monday, and probably Tuesday, affecting 350,000 kindergarten, elementary and high school students.
In a dramatic and unforeseen escalation of the dispute, which on Friday evening both sides claimed was close to resolution, the union's House of delegates met on Sunday and decided it needed more time to consider the agreement hammered out by its negotiators.
The showdown also left in doubt a deal on wages, benefits and education reforms for 29,000 unionised teachers that negotiators had hoped would end the biggest labor dispute in the United States in a year.
"They're not happy with the agreement. They'd like it to be a lot better for us than it is," said CTU president Karen Lewis.
Union president Karen Lewis said some 800 union delegates met on Sunday and decided to go back to consult with rank-and-file members before voting whether to end the walk out.
Since Monday is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, they will not meet until Tuesday which means children will not be able to return to school at the earliest until Wednesday.
"There's no trust (of the school district and mayor)," Lewis told a news conference. "So you have a population of people who are frightened of never being able to work for no fault of their own."
Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel responded with characteristic ferocity, insisting he would file a court injunction to break the strike in its second week.
Union delegates will reconvene on Tuesday to discuss the feedback from rank-and-file members, Lewis said. Parents should plan for their children to be out of school until at least Wednesday, she said.
"I will not stand by while the children of Chicago are played as pawns in an internal dispute within a union," he argued in a written statement.
No formal vote of delegates was taken, but they were asked to stand up so that the union leadership could get a sense of how many were for and against ending the strike, delegates said.
"This was a strike of choice and is now a delay of choice that is wrong for our children. Every day our kids are kept out of school is one more day we fail in our mission: to ensure that every child in every community has an education that matches their potential," Emanuel said.
"A clear majority wanted to stay out. That's why we are staying out," Lewis told a news conference after a three-hour meeting of the delegates.
"This continued action by union leadership is illegal on two grounds – it is over issues that are deemed by state law to be non-strikable, and it endangers the health and safety of our children...While the union works through its remaining issues, there is no reason why the children of Chicago should not be back in the classroom as they had been for weeks while negotiators worked through these same issues."
Emanuel called the strike "illegal" and said he would go to court to seek an injunction to block the strike.
The teachers have overwhelming public support although the continuation of strike and the mixed signals from the union leadership may jeapordise that.
"I will not stand by while the children of Chicago are played as pawns in an internal dispute within a union," Emanuel said, adding that the union walked out over issues that are not subject to a strike under Illinois state law.
The two sides were deadlocked for the first two days of the strike, particularly over the key questions of the degree to which test scores can be used for teacher evaluation and the city's policy for rehiring teachers who had been fired due to school closures. This was a particular point of concern because the city plans to close around 100 schools imminently throwing thousands of teachers out of work. The closures, said Lewis, "under-girds everything they talk about."
Teachers revolted last week against sweeping education reforms sought by Emanuel, especially evaluating teachers based on the standardised test scores of their students. They also fear a wave of neighbourhood school closings that could result in mass teacher layoffs. They want a guarantee that laid-off teachers will be "recalled" for other jobs in the district.
Halfway through last week the two sides appeared to have found common ground on both issues. The City relaxed its sanctions regarding teacher evaluations and its emphasis on testing and a formula was agreed whereby teachers with good evaluations who were laid off would be recalled.
"They're still not happy with the evaluations. They're not happy with the recall (provision)," Lewis said of the union delegates.
On Wednesday night Lewis had been very upbeat about the prospect of an deal. Asked to use a scale of one to 10 regarding the chances of a deal being reached on Thursday, Chicago teachers union president Karen Lewis said: "I'm a nine."
Before the meeting of delegates on Sunday, Lewis had called the agreement a "good contract." But after the decision to extend the strike she backtracked, saying: "This is not a good deal. This is the deal we got."
Asked on Thursday if she thought schools would be open on Monday, Lewis said "I'm praying, praying, praying. I'm on my knees for that, please. Yes, I'm hoping for Monday." The House of delegates demand for more time clearly took her – and the rest of the City by surprise. Some said they did not trust the mayor or the City and so wanted to read the agreement more thoroughly.
Emanuel's chief negotiator, school board president David Vitale, said the union should allow children to go back to school while the two sides go through the process of approval of the agreement.
On Saturday there was a huge celebratory rally of teachers on Chicago's Westside during which representatives of teachers' unions from all over the country came to show solidarity.
"We are extremely disappointed that after 10 months of discussion reaching an honest and fair compromise that (the union) decided to continue their strike of choice and keep our children out of the classroom," Vitale said.
So too was Barbara Byrd-Bennett, chief education officer with CPS, was also confident, claiming children could be in school as early as Friday. "I can really, really say to you, if we stick to the issues, unless something really nutsy happens, kids can be back in school [Friday]."
During the first week of the strike, parents and Chicago voters appeared to back the union, with some parents and students joining boisterous rallies and opinion polls showing support. A key question is whether the extension of the strike will anger some parents and raise support for Emanuel's efforts to end it.
Both sides appeared to win some concessions, according to details of the tentative agreement released by the parties.
Emanuel compromised on the design of the first update of the evaluation system for Chicago teachers in 40 years. He agreed to phase in the new plan over several years and reduced the weighting of standardised test results in reviewing teachers.
Teachers won some job-security protections and prevented the introduction of merit pay in their contract.
The Chicago strike has shone a bright light on a fierce national debate over how to reform failing inner-city schools. The union believes that more money and resources should be given to neighbourhood public schools to help them improve.
Emanuel and a legion of financiers and philanthropists believe that failing schools should be closed and reopened with new staff and principals to give the students the best chance of improving academically.
In Chicago, more than 80 neighbourhood schools have been closed in the last decade as the enrollment has declined by about 20%. The Chicago Tribune reported last week that another 120 of about 600 city public schools could be closed.
At the same time, 96 so-called charter schools have been opened. Charters are controversial because they are publicly funded but non-union and not subject to some public school rules and regulations. Their record of improving student academic performance is mixed, studies show.
Lewis and the union argue that charters are undermining public education.
The agreement calls for a 3% pay raise for teachers this year and 2% in each of the next two years. If the agreement is extended for an optional fourth year, teachers get a 3% increase. The increases will result in an average 17.6 increase over four years, the district said.
The deal could worsen the Chicago Public Schools financial crisis. Emanuel said the contract will cost $295 million over four years, or $74 million per year.
Debt rating agencies had previously warned that the new agreement with teachers could bust the school district budget and lead to a downgrade of its credit rating.
The district has drained all its financial reserves to cover an expected budget deficit over the next year and has levied the maximum property tax allowed by law.
Lewis said teachers also fear that when the strike ends, Emanuel will soon announce the closing of scores of schools to save money to pay for the new contract with teachers and to make room for opening more charter schools.
Teachers won a concession from Emanuel that half of all teachers hired by the district must be union members laid off from school closings.
