(WTTW News)
The Chicago Teachers Union has gone on strike during contract negotiations twice in the past 12 years, but with a former teacher and union organizer now leading the city, officials are expressing hope of a “new chapter in how we negotiate in Chicago.”
CTU leaders on Tuesday announced their contract demands as bargaining gets underway on a new deal as the union’s existing contract is set to expire in June.
“Every contract that we have been a part of since 2012 has been hard fought and hard won,” CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said at a press conference Tuesday morning. “We are OK with the struggle, we are OK with making it work. And this time, though, we want to make it work with everyone at the same time.”
Davis Gates said she wants these negotiations to take place “in the front yard” instead of behind closed doors, and expressed hope that bargaining could be livestreamed to the public and could include stakeholders, students and families in the room as talks take place.
HAPPENING NOW: @ctulocal1 members at Richards Career Academy are inviting everyone to participate in our contract negotiations.
This is different from negotiations of the past: we are going to engage the entire city of Chicago in our contract negotiation for the common good. pic.twitter.com/YWgHRprtyu
— Chicago Teachers Union (@CTULocal1) April 16, 2024
Union officials on Tuesday discussed some of their contract demands, including staffing improvements, housing assistance, expanded dual language and fine arts programs, and sustainable community schools.
“Our (collective bargaining agreement) is a tool, a vehicle for transformative change and we are going to up the ante,” Davis Gates said.
The CTU said it met with CPS leaders last week to begin scheduling out bargaining sessions, and that process is expected to continue this week.
The union went on strike for seven school days in 2012, and then for 11 more school days when negotiations broke down in 2019. And it took a last second agreement with Chicago Public Schools in 2016 to prevent another work stoppage.
But after the CTU spent heavily to back Brandon Johnson — who previously worked as a union organizer and teacher — during his successful mayoral run last year, officials are striking a more optimistic tone.
Speaking outside Richards Career Academy in the Back of the Yards neighborhood Tuesday, Davis Gates said the city needs more school communities like this one where people come together “to nurture, to educate, to reimagine, to ameliorate injustice and disparity.”
“We want this type of school all over the district,” she said. “But the most wonderful thing about that, is not only does the union want it, the mayor of Chicago wants it. And that is different from contract campaigns and negotiations of the past.”
