As Education Crunch Looms, Chicago Needs a Quick Deal

The contract for the Chicago Teachers Union, the labor organization representing public school teachers across the city, expired in June. While a strike might not be likely, a quick deal doesn’t seem to be either. And the city needs one. Fast.

Since then, Chicago’s teachers have been working without a contract, according to The Chicago Tribune. Other segments of the CPS workforce, including the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association and the Service Employees International Union Local 73 — which represents school support staff — renewed their contracts last year.

Negotiations, however, have been slow between the city and the CTU’s nearly 23,000 members. This is in part because of disagreements between CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, Mayor Brandon Johnson and his appointees on the Chicago school board.

Although a CTU strike still isn’t likely according to ABC7 Chicago, contract negotiations continuing into the spring could cause complications for long-term teachers and recent education grads alike.

Martinez was fired at the end of last year, following the resignation of the entire school board and Johnson’s appointment of new members. Johnson’s appointees unanimously voted to fire him “without cause,” according to WTTW Chicago.

Martinez’s dismissal came following his refusal to carry out the mayor’s plan for a $300 million short-term loan to cover the district’s budget shortfall. Since the CEO’s removal lacked legal cause, his contract mandates he remain in office for a six-month transitional period, after which he’ll continue to receive 20 weeks of severance pay.

This means even following his removal as CPS CEO, Martinez remains responsible for handling the city’s contract negotiations with education employee unions — including the CTU. 

Despite the mayor — a former CTU organizer himself — signaling his strong support for the union by forcing Martinez out, negotiations have remained stalled. Both CPS and CTU accused one another of intentionally slowing the bargaining process, according to CBS2 Chicago.

Negotiations have also been slowed by internal scuffles on both sides of the labor dispute. In late December, a legal battle between Martinez and the new CPS board drove the Cook County Circuit Court to issue an order preventing negotiations from going forward without the CEO’s approval, according to Chalkbeat Chicago.

Additionally, the contract demands released by the CTU at the beginning of negotiations in April 2024 have caused strife with fellow union SEIU Local 73 over the status of special education classroom assistants. These SEIU-represented workers stand to lose their jobs if the CTU succeeds in increasing numbers of teaching assistants, according to The Chicago Tribune.

CPAA also expressed concern over some of the CTU’s demands, according to Chalkbeat Chicago, viewing them as overstepping school administrators.

All three unions are members of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. The organization helps unions coordinate bargaining and solidarity efforts, but their contracts are still negotiated separately — and differences in priority still arise.

The Illinois State Council of the SEIU voted to declare its membership as “under attack” from the CTU’s demands, falling just short of the “member raids” verbiage required to initiate AFL-CIO intervention, according to The Chicago Tribune. 

Despite their differences, SEIU Local 73 and the CTU have been long-time allies in promoting progressive politics and labor-friendly education reform in Chicago, and they supported Johnson’s 2022 election campaign. Still, the SEIU has held firm over the teaching assistant issue, threatening to sue if the district accepts the proposal.

Between the CTU and CPS, the earliest a strike could legally take place is April due to their current arbitration process, although both sides remain confident this will be avoided, according to ABC7 Chicago.

Even amidst their current disagreements, it’s important to note none of the parties bear full responsibility for the stalled negotiations. The ongoing struggles — both with CPS and between the unions — are ultimately caused by the end of pandemic-era education funding and President Donald Trump’s continued attacks on federal school spending. 

Both CTU President Stacy Davis Gates and the jointly-appointed labor arbitrator Martin Malin called the Trump administration a driving force behind the current crunch.

“We do not live in typical times,” Malin said in his fact-finding report, warning current instability makes efforts to perfectly estimate the future needs of both the district and the union “a fool’s errand.”

Davis Gates warned of looming education challenges caused by the new president in an interview with WTTW Chicago.

“We don’t know what that looks like in a school community,” Davis Gates said. “These are things that we have to settle at the table to codify and build a forcefield around our school district.”

One thing, however, is clear. Everyone — parents and teachers, students and staff, student teachers and city hall — need a deal that works for everyone, before the last of the Covid-era funding runs out.