UPDATE 5-Chicago Teachers Union poised to vote on deal to end 10-day strike


Reuters | Chicago | Updated: 31-10-2019 07:38 IST | Created: 31-10-2019 07:33 IST
UPDATE 5-Chicago Teachers Union poised to vote on deal to end 10-day strike
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Union leaders representing Chicago's striking teachers huddled behind closed doors to scrutinize, and perhaps vote on, a tentative deal reached at the bargaining table to end a 10-day walkout against the third-largest U.S. public school district. The deal is subject to approval by the union's House of Delegates, a body consisting of 825 elected representatives from each of the city's schools and support staff classifications before classes can resume for the district's 300,000 students.

If the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) delegates decided to go forward with a vote late on Wednesday, their endorsement of the settlement would likely be followed by a separate vote to halt the strike. A vote of disapproval, or a decision not to vote on the deal at all, would send it back to the bargaining team for further negotiations, union spokeswoman Chris Geovanis said by telephone from the downtown union hall where the delegates were meeting.

She said the outcome may well hinge on whether Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot agrees in a side letter to a final union demand to allow students, and staff, to make up for instructional days lost during the strike, Geovanis said. Even if union delegates voted Wednesday night to return to work, it would be up to the school district to decide whether to cancel classes for one more day given short notice of the strike's end.

The union's 25,000 members walked off the job on Oct. 17, after protracted contract talks failed to yield an agreement before a strike deadline set by the teachers. The walkout followed a wave of teacher strikes across the country over wages and education funding during the past two years, including a week-long work stoppage in Los Angeles in January. African-Americans and Hispanics account for the majority of Chicago's public school enrollment.

As was the case in Los Angeles, the labor dispute in Chicago centered on pay as well as teacher demands for contract language to reduce class size and increase staffing levels for support professionals, including nurses and social workers. "The CTU may have reached a monumental agreement," union Vice President Stacy Davis Gates said on Twitter, referring to the tentative deal.

SUPPORT STAFF LEVELS

The district said in a statement it was determining whether it could agree to make up more than eight school days lost during the strike, and that the Chicago Board of Education would need to vote on adding attendance days to the school calendar.

Strike teachers, who have been without a contract since July 1, have picketed in front of many of the district's 500 schools since the first day of the walkout, and have rallied several times in downtown Chicago. Chicago Public Schools social worker Mary Difino said that "it's a really big win" if proposed enforcible nurse and social work staffing levels are in the contract, which she plans to read thoroughly on Wednesday night.

"Our special education students have been shafted so much in the past. I feel a responsibility after a 10-day strike to make sure that it has all been worth it," she said after learning a tentative agreement had been reached. The union is seeking a contract that runs three years instead of five and more paid prep-time for elementary school teachers.

District officials have proposed to spend $25 million to reduce overcrowding in the district and a further $70 million to hire support staff, such as nurses and social workers. Chicago Mayor Lightfoot has said the district could not afford the union's full demands, estimating they would cost an extra $2.4 billion each year for an increase of more than 30% in the current school budget of $7.7 billion.

Also Read: UPDATE 3-Chicago teachers picket across the city on first day of strike

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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