CHICAGO _ Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren joined Chicago Teachers Union members on the fourth day of their strike Tuesday, hours after union President Jesse Sharkey accused Mayor Lori Lightfoot's administration of "vindictive actions" for suggesting the union go back to work without a contract and saying there was no more money for teacher demands.
Sharkey's accusation came after Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson made a plea to teachers to end their strike before a settlement and continue negotiations while working without a contract, leading Sharkey to say after negotiations ended for the day Monday that Lightfoot's letter had "dashed our hopes for a quick settlement."
In an email sent after midnight, Sharkey said "our bargaining team was beginning to see glimmers of progress on issues that matter to our members. (Monday) that progress stopped dead.
"It was clear from the mayor's letter to the press demanding members go back to work without a contract and from the sudden atmosphere of stonewalling from the CPS team, that (Mayor Lori Lightfoot) had pulled the plug on negotiations," Sharkey continued.
"The mayor's team said that there was no more money in the budget to address the many outstanding demands that are necessary to deliver justice for our school communities," he said.
The strike has sent about 25,000 teachers and 7,000 support staff to picket lines and kept about 300,000 students out of class and extracurricular activities, although school buildings staffed by principals and nonstriking staff have been open for child care and meals.
The work stoppage means classes are canceled again Tuesday for students in Chicago public schools. Sharkey said that while he and union vice president Stacy Davis Gates, as well as lawyers, will be in talks Tuesday, a 40-member contingent of the union's bargaining team was heading back to the picket lines.
Warren and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten joined strikers outside Oscar DePriest Elementary School, 139 S. Parkside Ave. in the Austin neighborhood, a little before 10 a.m. Tuesday.
The union's grim take on Monday's talks was in stark contrast with the message coming from Lightfoot and her administration at the start of the week.
Late Monday, a Lightfoot administration source said there was slow and steady progress on a number of issues. The pace of proposals had picked up and the union was moving faster, the source said.
CTU officials gave CPS proposals on staffing and class sizes and the administration responded again before they ended for the day. There were no major breakthroughs but it was a positive day, the source said, though Lightfoot officials were disappointed in CTU for not calling off the strike as the mayor proposed.
Also Monday night, Lightfoot and Jackson released a statement saying talks had been productive while criticizing the union for sending bargaining members to picket.
"Real progress has been made on the key contract issues that CTU identified, and written proposals to boost staffing and support overcrowded classrooms have been exchanged," they wrote. "We were encouraged today by the improved pace of bargaining and substantive discussions on key issues, so it is now deeply concerning to hear that CTU is pulling members of its bargaining team away from the negotiating table tomorrow at this crucial juncture."
The mayor and Jackson again reiterated their argument that the strike is hurting students.
"(Tuesday) for the fourth straight school day, students from throughout the city won't be participating in the athletic competitions they've earned the right to compete in, won't be preparing their college applications with trusted school staff, and won't be in classrooms with the teachers who hold the keys to their success," Lightfoot and Jackson wrote. "We must fix that immediately and end this strike."
Sharkey spoke to teachers and reporters in front of Passages Charter School, 1643 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. in Edgewater, about 7:15 a.m. Tuesday, saying what the administration has put into writing is not good enough.
"A written proposal and an adequate written proposal are two different things," he said, adding that while Lightfoot's proposal would provide class-size relief for about 15% of classrooms, none of those classrooms are in city high schools, for example. He also said it did not include an adequate enforcement provision regarding class sizes or staffing.
Additionally, Sharkey explained the union's 40-member bargaining team, comprised of "rank-and-file" educators, would not sit in on Tuesday's session, but that talks will go on as planned.
The mayor has publically criticized the 40-person team as being "no good, too slow," Sharkey asserted. Upon hearing that she doesn't plan to move forward at this point, those 40 union members are to be sent back into the community to join the picket lines. He claimed that the mayor on Monday essentially said, "We're not making any more movement, this is it, the barrel is dry," he said.
"When she has an offer to make, we'll bring them back," he told reporters at a news conference.
Sharkey's email early Tuesday also complained that "vindictive actions have served to halt the real progress that the negotiating teams were making toward resolution of the contract."
Lightfoot and Jackson suggested that the strike could drag on "several days" even after a tentative deal is reached because the union will still have to approve it. Often, though, unions will return to work once a tentative deal is struck.
"Yesterday negotiations took a turn for the worse. We thought we had started to see where we were going to land ... (but then) the board followed what the mayor was saying in public: 'We're out of money, there's no more places for us to go,'" Sharkey said. "It was extremely disappointing."
