CHARTER SCHOOL TEACHERS DECLARE STRIKE, 1ST IN U.S.
Teachers for one of the city’s largest charter school networks will launch a strike Tuesday morning.
The Chicago Teachers Union will spearhead the first teacher strike in Chicago since 2012, marking the first time in the country’s history that a group of charter school educators banded together for a network-wide walkout.
“Management had the power to settle a contract tonight — and instead they offered us more of the status quo,” Jesse Sharkey, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, said in a press release early Tuesday. “We will be on the picket line until they come back with an offer that respects our students and the people who educate them.”
Starting Tuesday, 550 teachers and paraprofessionals won’t show up for classes, forcing Acero’s management to shutter its doors. Acero is encouraging parents to keep their kids at home, but if that is not possible, they have listed many Chicago Park Districts and some YMCA locations as an alternative. A complete list of schoolspecific resources can be accessed on its website.
Since May, teachers have been negotiating with Acero’s management team for better pay, enhanced special-education resources, sanctuary schools and reduced class sizes.
A bargaining meeting was in session Monday evening ahead of the midnight strike deadline. But Sharkey said the negotiations were not fruitful.
“For us, this is about bringing good conditions in our school and having fair treatment for the people who work in those schools,” Sharkey said. “We obviously would prefer to get it and be in our classrooms tomorrow.”
However, “we have not seen progress,” he said.
Acero said Monday before the strike announcement that it believed CTU was threatening a strike to make an “example out of charter schools.”
“While we are disappointed at the strike announcement, we are not entirely surprised,” Noelle Gaffney, a spokesperson for Acero Schools, said. “We were in negotiations all weekend and again today. Acero Schools is deeply committed to arriving at a mutually agreeable solution. We won’t leave the bargaining table until this is resolved.”