Chicago Teachers Go on Strike

On This Site

• Current Events

Share This Page Follow This Site

October 17, 2019

About 27,000 educators and members of the Chicago Teachers Union picketed schools around Chicago, starting at 6:30 a.m. Not attending school were the nearly 300,000 students who would normally report for learning in the U.S.'s third-largest school district.

A full three-quarters of students across the city qualify free for lunch that is free or offered at a reduced price. As well, as large number of students eat more than one of their daily meals at school. To address this need, Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Janice Jackson said, schools would remain open to provide three meals a day. Teachers will not be at work, but administrative staff will. School buses will not be running, however.

The union had held fast with a series of 13 demands, including smaller sizes, more support staff such as nurses and teacher's assistants, and an increase in salary for all school employees. The Chicago Board of Education had responded with a number of proposals, and the two sides had agreed on several issues. However, it was not enough to convince the union to call off the strike. For example, the union wanted a salary increase to be phased in during three years; the city had countered with a five-year plan.

The current union contract ended June 30.

Lori Lightfoot, the newly elected mayor, had canceled classes the day before the strike began. Lightfoot said that the city would not be able to meet some of those demands but that city officials would continue to have discussions with union officials, who had not declared how long the strike would last.

It was the first strike in Chicago school since 2012, when teachers stayed away for seven days. The union had sanctioned a one-day walkout in 2016.

Not affected were the hundreds of teachers and nearly 62,000 students at the city's charter and private schools.

It was the latest in a series of teacher strikes in major cities across the country in the past two years. So far in 2019, teachers in Los Angeles, Denver, and Oakland have gone on strike. All ended their strikes after winning concessions from school districts. In 2018, teachers, in Arizona, Oklahoma, and West Virginia went on strike and gained certain conditions.