CTU rejects Lightfoot’s latest contract offer, inches closer to potential strike

CTU President Jesse Sharkey (middle) discusses with reporters the union’s rejection of an independent fact finder’s report on contract negotiations with CPS. | Nader Issa/Sun-Times

The Chicago Teachers Union on Monday rejected a sweetened contract offer that would increase teacher salaries 16% over five years, dismissing a fact-finder’s report that union leaders said ignored many of its concerns.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot had announced that $351 million contract offer based on the independent fact-finder’s report. The fact-finder met with the city and teachers union last month to hear them make their cases for their proposals, and publicly released his recommendations Monday.

“There’s no reason a deal can’t be reached by the start of the school year,” Lightfoot told reporters Monday morning. “There’s no reason there should be a strike. We have 30 days to get the job done. We could get this done today. We’ve put, I think, a very robust offer on the table.”

Though a deal before the first day of school next Tuesday seems unlikely, Lightfoot wants to avoid a teachers strike similar to the one in 2012 that marred the start of former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s tenure and his relationship with the city’s teachers thereafter.

The CTU, meanwhile, rejected the fact-finder’s report, saying the findings ignored the vast majority of its demands.

“The fact-finder’s report was silent on a number of our key concerns that addressed conditions in our schools and classrooms,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey said.

“Though the wage and benefit proposals will be said to be generous by the mayor and CPS’ team, they come in the context of nearly a decade of austerity and cuts for Chicago’s teachers and other school staff,” Sharkey said. “We’ve endured three freezes, multiple furloughs, layoffs and other cuts.”

Despite the mayor’s proposal on wages, Lightfoot has refused to include in a contract the union’s demands for librarians and nurses at every school, more special education and bilingual support, smaller classes and a counselor for every 250 students. She has instead vowed to accede to some of those demands outside of the CTU contract.

“The contract does not represent the full scope of important issues that we are committed to addressing with our teachers, school leaders and families,” CPS CEO Janice Jackson said. “It is well known that the teachers union has prioritized issues that the fact finder concluded fall outside of bargaining. These are matters where we share mutual interests.”

Sharkey said some progress has been made at the bargaining table, though the two sides remain a “really, really, really long way away” from a deal. He said four main issues — staffing shortages, pay and benefits, class sizes, and more nurses and counselors — are the main sticking points for the CTU.

“This union is going to continue preparing for a strike, if need be, in order to deliver those improvements for our members and for the people who rely on public schools in the city of Chicago,” Sharkey said.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson, joined by Mayor Lori Lightfoot (left), speaks about the Chicago Teachers Union contract during a press conference at Daniel Webster Elementary School on the West Side on Monday morning.

While the fact-finder made no recommendations on many of those key issues, he sided with CPS in recommending a five-year deal. The report’s suggestion on wages and employee health contributions was a compromise between the two sides’ proposals, with the fact-finder recommending a 16% raise over five years instead of CPS’ proposed 14% raise over that term. The teachers union had asked for a 15% raise over three years.

Employee contributions to health care, meanwhile, should go up by 1% over the last three years of a five-year deal, the fact-finder’s report said. CPS had proposed raising employee contributions to health care by 1.5% over that time, while the CTU asked to maintain current contributions.

The CTU had originally proposed a three-year, $3 billion contract with that 15% pay raise in a deal that would “rebuild” the city’s public school system with wraparound services that would support students faced with trauma.

The fact-finder’s report was given to both sides on Aug. 8 and publicly released Monday. With the report’s rejection, the CTU now can vote at any time to authorize a strike. Illinois law requires the union wait 30 days after a strike authorization vote before enacting a work stoppage.

Indications from the CTU point to a mid-September authorization vote at the earliest, meaning a strike, if one happens, likely wouldn’t come until mid-to-late October.

The two sides are expected back at the bargaining table Monday afternoon.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot discussed contract negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union during a press conference at Daniel Webster Elementary School Monday morning. Joining her were (from left) Chicago Public Schools administrators Shontae Higginbottom, Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade and CEO Janice Jackson.