CHICAGO _ Negotiators for the Chicago Board of Education and the teachers union launched what were expected to be hours of intense talks Monday ahead of the midnight strike deadline.
It was not clear whether the two sides would make enough progress to stop some 20,000 teachers from shutting down schools Tuesday. Chicago Teachers Union members were picking up strike materials Monday afternoon and being told to show up for picket lines outside schools at 6 a.m. Tuesday unless they hear otherwise.
One Chicago Public Schools official who spoke on condition of anonymity said both sides were "not too far apart on the economics," leaving room for a deal to be made. But any terms would have to win approval from a 40-member union bargaining team that was scheduled to be part of the day's negotiations at the SEIU Healthcare headquarters on the Lower West Side. Talks began around noon.
CTU said its leaders would not speak until the conclusion of Monday's talks, which are expected to stretch late into the evening.
Early Monday, union allies protested near Mayor Rahm Emanuel's North Side home as part of an effort to pressure the mayor's administration into pulling millions of dollars into CPS from special city taxing districts. Union members also planned an evening demonstration near Willis Tower.
Teachers have been working without a contract since June 2015. The deal that expired then was reached after a seven-day strike in 2012.
