Chicago Teachers Union moves one step closer to going on strike

The Chicago Teachers Union rejected recommendations from a neutral factfinder. The union will be free to strike after the report is public for 30 days and the union gives 10 days’ notice of striking.

The Chicago Teachers Union may soon be going on strike against the mayor it bankrolled into office.

The union announced it rejected recommendations from a neutral third-party “fact finder” in its latest phase of negotiations with Chicago Public Schools. That moves the teachers union one step closer to going on strike against CPS and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who gained control of City Hall after CTU funneled $2.3 million into his campaign coffers.

The union thought having Johnson in office would facilitate negotiations this time around. “This year’s CTU contract negotiations will be different than any other,” CTU wrote in an April 2024 bulletin.

But the district’s $500 million budget deficit and CTU’s pricey demands have been major hurdles. The two sides are deadlocked on several issues.

CTU may want to rethink walking out on students to get its demands met. With 60% of Chicagoans having an unfavorable opinion of the union, going on strike would jeopardize the union’s reputation with the mere 29% who do approve.

Here’s what you need to know about what could come next.

The fact finding timeline

The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act governs collective bargaining between public school districts and teachers unions. Under the law, when CPS and CTU fail to reach an agreement, the dispute can be submitted to “fact finding” by either side. A neutral fact finder reviews the claims of the two sides and issues recommendations on the provisions where parties have not reached agreement.

Now that the union has rejected the report, it will be made public for 30 days. Then the union would have to give 10-days’ notice if it intends to go on strike.

CTU should rethink going on strike in a city that overwhelmingly disapproves of the union

“No one wants to go on strike. Fact finding should make it unnecessary,” CTU posted last April. Yet now CTU has rejected the fact finder’s recommendations.

What’s more, strikes are CTU’s negotiating weapon of choice. In just the past 13 years, it has walked out on students five times:

• In 2012, a strike during contract negotiations kept kids out of classes for seven days.
• On April 1, 2016, the union conducted an illegal one-day strike in response to alleged “union-busting” efforts of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, Democratic Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CPS CEO Forrest Claypool.
• In 2019, a strike during contract negotiations closed schools for 11 days.
• In January 2021, classes were cancelled when CTU refused to return to school for in-person learning following COVID-19 closures.
• In January 2022, CTU walked out on school children for five days. Parents were notified of the walkout after 11 p.m. on a school night, leaving them just hours to develop a back-up plan after the union decided not to show up for Chicago’s children.

But the union is now hugely unpopular with Chicagoans. New polling shows 60% of Chicago voters have an unfavorable view of the union and more than half disapprove of the union’s president, Stacy Davis Gates.

Of the 798 registered Chicago voters polled, only 29% approve of CTU, down from 44% in February 2023 just before Johnson won the mayoral race.

Davis Gates and the rest of CTU’s leadership should take note. Walking out on the students isn’t going to gain them any support from the people. But it could pull away the small number of Chicagoans it has left in its corner.