CHICAGO _ Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is calling on the Chicago Teachers Union to end its strike even before negotiations result in an agreement.
But a union member said "that's not going to happen," saying real progress has only come since the walkout began on Thursday.
In a Monday letter to CTU President Jesse Sharkey, the mayor and Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson wrote: "We ask CTU to stay at the bargaining table and accelerate the pace, but end the strike and encourage your members to come back to work. Our students and families should not continue to bear this burden.
"The CPS team will continue to negotiate in good faith and with the same sense of urgency, and we can close out the remaining issues with our students back in class," the letter, obtained by the Tribune, continued.
Separately, the teachers union also invited the Rev. Jesse Jackson to mediate talks. The civil rights leader appeared briefly with union officials last week after a bargaining session.
"Each side has some validity," Jackson said then. "There must be some common ground."
Teachers and support staff were out in front of Chicago schools again Monday morning after staying out of school starting Thursday. 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.
"We could end this within a couple days. But there would need to be a commitment on the mayor's part to do that," Sharkey said while standing Monday morning at a picket line at William P. Gray Elementary School in Portage Park.
"We're holding strong and things look good," he told teachers. "After 10 months of telling us that they would not bargain over class size and staffing, we saw written proposals over class size and staffing."
Sharkey said there have been a few sticking points. One is the desire for a nurse in every school every day. Another is fixing the way pay stagnates for teachers in their last 20 years. Sharkey said those are the teachers who mentor and show younger teachers how to do the job.
"I'm not saying we're going to fall asleep tonight in Portage Park and wake up in Winnetka ... but we want to see progress," Sharkey said to cheers from the teachers on the picket line.
Noting that his two children attend Chicago public schools, Sharkey said his oldest's soccer team made it into the playoffs and "still really isn't speaking to me." Sharkey added that he understands the frustration, but that "no one wants to get back into the classroom more than the teachers in the city of Chicago."
"This is the best-in-a-generation opportunity to do some important things," he said. "We're going to hold firm for the resources we need. We're going to hold firm as a city and as a union."
In their letter asking for the strike to end, Lightfoot and Jackson also referenced opportunities student-athletes are missing out on during the strike, citing soccer and tennis teams missing out on tournament play and the Simeon Career Academy football team being ineligible for playoffs if the strike isn't resolved by Tuesday. They also pointed to seniors' concerns about college applications and noted that a college fair planned at Whitney Young Magnet High School this weekend had to be canceled.
Lightfoot and Jackson wrote that it's "unclear" whether the sides can reach a deal on Monday "given the current pace" of negotiations.
"The students and families of Chicago cannot afford to be out of school for any longer, which is why we are asking you to end the strike and encourage your members to return to work while bargaining continues," the pair wrote. "As someone who is concerned about the success of our students, we hope you see how necessary it is to reopen schools at this time."
But at a union news conference Monday where CPS coaches talked about the need for better staffing, facilities and busing for sports programs, Alison Eichhorn, a social science teacher and softball coach at Lindblom Math and Science Academy, responded to a question about Lightfoot's proposal to end the strike.
"That's not going to happen," Eichhorn said. "I don't know if the mayor is familiar with what unions do but we've gotten more deals, more tentative agreements in the past two days than we have in 10 months. So it's actually up to the mayor."... we're taking about bargaining in good faith and we're talking sense of urgency. We've had urgency for 10 months. The last thing we wanted to do was leave our classrooms."
But in addition to the other hardships for CPS families, the mayor and schools chief also raised safety concerns for students.
"Even with school buildings _ as well as partner and delegate agencies _ remaining open and providing meals and snacks, the fact remains that our students' safety and access to healthy food are more at risk without the structure of a full school day," Lightfoot and Jackson wrote.
Again, Lightfoot and Jackson said, they've worked to address the union's concerns about class sizes and staffing.
"We put commitments in writing on Thursday and Friday through counteroffers to lower primary grade class sizes in high-poverty schools, and to provide every school with at least one nurse and one social worker within five years," they wrote. "What we've offered on both core issues addresses concerns for the highest-need schools first _ an approach grounded in equity. And what we've offered is something CPS can both afford, and achieve. That is no small feat."
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.
On the prospect of Jesse Jackson serivng as a mediator, as the union has suggested, Lightfoot said: "God bless, they can bring anybody in that they think that they need. But she noted that, in her experience, it's not helpful when you have a complicated matter and you're down to what's hopefully the final strokes to bring in somebody who's not familiar with the particulars.
"Delay is not our friend," she said.
Meanwhile, despite progress on class size, the issue remains a sticking point.
One middle school teacher who spoke outside Gray, Kaitlyn Jensen, said she teaches special education classes that are supposed to have a limit of 12 students in each self-contained classroom. She said she's sat in on classes where there were 18 special education students. Sharkey added to her point, saying some of these students may be nonverbal, may require medication every day or may be in a wheelchair. He reiterated his call for a nurse in each school.
"Although we want a fast settlement we're going to hold fast for a just settlement," he said.
At a news conference late Sunday, union officials said they made progress on smaller class sizes and counselors. The union made a counterproposal, a CTU member said.
The two sides spent time Sunday discussing affordable housing and rent control. But according to an administration source, the mayor's side reiterated its opposition to putting those issues in a contract, where it says they don't belong.
The union also got language added into the contract to ensure pre-K classrooms have a 10-1 student-to-adult ratio, an official announced Sunday night.
