With just over three weeks to go until Chicago Public Schools reopen for the fall, leaders for CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union can’t even agree on how and when bargaining should take place.
CPS on Thursday declined CTU’s invitation to an “open bargaining session” on Aug. 11 to hammer out coronavirus safety plans before students return to full-time in-person learning Aug. 30.
“While your letter does not explain what you mean by an ‘open’ bargaining session, we do not agree that a session focused on presentation rather than substance will increase trust,” CPS Chief Labor Relations Officer Kaitlyn Girard wrote to CTU President Jesse Sharkey in a letter obtained by the Chicago Tribune.
“Both CPS and CTU have designated bargaining teams who represent their respective interests at the bargaining table. We do not think a platform for theatrical performance by either party will advance this process or get us to where we both acknowledge we need to be.”
Lisa Williams, left, talks to Jennifer Johnson, center, and Stacy Davis Gates of the Chicago Teachers Union as they go door to door in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago on Aug. 4, to talk about COVID-19 safety concerns as Chicago Public Schools prepare to reopen. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
In a letter Wednesday to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, CPS leaders and Chicago Board of Education members, Sharkey said an open bargaining session is “essential to improving trust between our district and the community it serves.” Despite the rejection, CTU informed CPS late Thursday it “intends to move ahead with a bargaining session open to the public” and noted that “CPS’s representatives’ failure to appear will speak volumes.”
Among the issues the union wants to address: ventilation system upgrades in school buildings; a COVID-19 testing plan for vaccinated and unvaccinated members of CPS communities; the hiring of full-time contact tracers, nurses, social workers and counselors; and a citywide home visit program to engage students and families.
Sharkey’s Wednesday letter also mentions, but does not detail, “criteria and health metrics” that could lead to a “pause” of in-person learning, as the highly transmissible delta variant spurs an increase in coronavirus cases in Chicago.
CTU’s response to CPS’s Thursday letter contained more criticisms. The union blasted the district’s counter-proposals, which they said “have called for rolling back critical health and safety standards” and have failed to allocate federal coronavirus relief funds to, among other things, funding a vaccination program “that succeeds in vaccinating 100% of eligible CPS students and staff.”
About 82% of CPS teachers have been vaccinated, according to district data. Meanwhile, 52% of Chicago kids aged 12 to 17 — whether they attend CPS or not — had received their first shot as of Wednesday, city data shows.
Even before the statewide school mandate, CPS decided to require students, teachers and staff members to wear masks indoors, regardless of their vaccination status. In his Wednesday letter, Sharkey said CPS “needs more than masking to ensure safety.”
CPS agreed Thursday to post CPS’s and CTU’s proposals on CPS’s website to give “an authentic window into bargaining and a clearer understanding of the parties’ positions.” CPS also proposed to meet CTU for bargaining every day, starting Friday and including weekends.
In its Thursday response letter, CTU said it is available to meet daily beginning Tuesday, the date of the next regularly scheduled bargaining session.
“Respectfully, however, it is not the frequency of our meetings that is impeding our progress toward achieving an agreement, but rather CPS’s intransigence,” CTU Deputy General Counsel Thad Goodchild wrote in his letter to Girard.
State Superintendent of Education Carmen Ayala issued a declaration last month mandating in-person learning at all Illinois schools with limited exceptions.
The pandemic — which struck months after a two-week walkout by the teachers union — prompted a series of bitter battles between CPS and CTU over school reopening plans as the union fought what it said were inadequate COVID protections. Members staged “teach-outs,” and some refused to show up for in-person work and were locked out of their CPS logins, bringing the district to the edge of another strike and resulting in delays of each stage of the reopening, which was staggered by grade level.
tswartz@tribpub.com
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