Category: Chicago Teachers Union
Teachers, students return to Chicago public schools
Teachers, students return to Chicago public schools
More than 350,000 Chicago public school students returned to class this morning after union officials overwhelmingly called off a seven-day teachers strike.
Sixteen-year-old Jayton Howard, on his way to Paul Robeson High School on the South Side, summed up his feelings in a word: “Great.”
Parents were happy too. Some expressed hope that the new contract will benefit students in a district grappling with high dropout rates and poor performance.
“They’ll win from the strike,” said Leslie Sabbs-Kizer, whose children attend elementary school. Continue reading “Teachers, students return to Chicago public schools”
Chicago teachers strike enters 2nd week
Chicago teachers strike enters 2nd week
SOPHIA TAREEN and TAMMY WEBBER | September 17, 2012 08:56 AM EST |
CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is turning to the courts to try to put an end to a teachers strike that’s entering its second week and has left parents scrambling to make alternative child care arrangements for at least two more days.
The union and school leaders seemed headed toward a resolution at the end of last week, saying they were optimistic students in the nation’s third-largest school district would be back in class by Monday. But teachers uncomfortable with a tentative contract offer decided Sunday to remain on strike, saying they needed more time to review a complicated proposal.
Emanuel fired back, saying he told city attorneys to seek a court order forcing Chicago Teachers Union members back into the classroom. Continue reading “Chicago teachers strike enters 2nd week”
Chicago Teachers Strike: Union To Continue Industrial Action Into Second Week
Chicago Teachers Strike: Union To Continue Industrial Action Into Second Week
By TAMMY WEBBER 09/16/12 08:25 PM ET

CHICAGO — The Chicago teachers union decided Sunday to continue its weeklong strike, extending an acrimonious standoff with Mayor Rahm Emanuel over teacher evaluations and job security provisions central to the debate over the future of public education across the United States.
Emanuel said he would seek a court order to end the strike, which he said is illegal under state law.
Union delegates declined to formally vote on a proposed contract settlement worked out over the weekend with officials from the nation’s third largest school district. Schools will remain closed Monday.
Union president Karen Lewis said teachers want the opportunity to continue to discuss the offer that is on the table. Continue reading “Chicago Teachers Strike: Union To Continue Industrial Action Into Second Week”
Teachers Union in Chicago to Extend Strike Into 2nd Week
Teachers Union in Chicago to Extend Strike Into 2nd Week
By MONICA DAVEY and STEVEN YACCINO
Published: September 16, 2012
CHICAGO — Leaders of a teachers union extended their strike on Sunday, saying they needed more time to consider a contract deal reached by negotiators over the weekend and forcing 350,000 students around this city to begin a second week without classes.
The decision, which was certain to infuriate City Hall and frustrate parents already weary from juggling day care for a week, dashed earlier hopes that hundreds of public schools around the city might reopen on Monday. It came as a setback to the union’s bargaining team, too, which felt it had secured an agreement its leaders might accept, even if it did not quell every concern voiced at protests across the city over the past week.
“I do what they tell me to do,” Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, said on Sunday, after a majority of nearly 800 union leaders — the House of Delegates — opted to meet again on Tuesday rather than immediately lift a strike in the nation’s third-largest school system. “There’s all kinds of stuff that they’re concerned about,” Ms. Lewis said of the delegates’ reluctance to accept the negotiated deal. “This is the deal we got.” Continue reading “Teachers Union in Chicago to Extend Strike Into 2nd Week”