{"id":90757,"date":"2019-10-31T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T17:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=90757"},"modified":"2020-05-31T10:54:29","modified_gmt":"2020-05-31T15:54:29","slug":"ctu-strike-finally-comes-to-a-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/ctu-strike-finally-comes-to-a-close\/","title":{"rendered":"CTU strike finally comes to a close"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Grace Asiegbu<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Medill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) agreed on a five-year labor contract, ending the record 11-day strike that kept 35,000 students at home.<\/p>\n<p>The two sides had reached an agreement late on Wednesday about the contract, with specifics including a nurse and a social worker in every school community every day and a hard cap on class sizes. However, the strike was extended for one day because they couldn\u2019t agree on a number of make-up days.<\/p>\n<p>The news came on the heels of a closed-door meeting in which Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CTU leaders agreed to make up five school days lost to the strike \u2014 reversing the union\u2019s earlier demand to make up all 11 days.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the day, a compromise seemed unlikely as Lightfoot held a press conference where she doubled down on her unwillingness to compromise with what she felt was a \u201ctake it or leave it\u201d demand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have no sense that they are willing to compromise,\u201d she said. \u201cIf they want to come to the table in the spirit of compromise, I&#8217;m certainly willing to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Chris Baehrend, chair of the charter division of the Chicago Teachers Union, said the deal is what the CTU was looking for, adding that they wanted nothing more than what was best for the students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is really about better schools for students,\u201d Baehrend said. \u201cWe have the best opportunity in a generation to improve working conditions for our students. We got a deal that&#8217;s got incredible wins. People are back in the classrooms and we&#8217;re excited about that,\u201d Baehrend said.<\/p>\n<p>The CTU strike has been one of the longest Chicago teacher\u2019s strikes in history. The longest strike was in 1987, lasting for a total of 19 days. The most recent strike before this one was the 2012 strike, for seven days. At the core of this year\u2019s strike were issues of class sizes and auxiliary support staff like nurses, counselors, and librarians.<\/p>\n<p>Public support for the strike waned as the number of days students weren\u2019t in class continued to climb, with seemingly no real end in sight.<\/p>\n<p>Some teachers felt that the deal between CTU and Lightfoot\u2019s office did not go far enough. Melissa Gerleve, a teacher at Lindblom Math and Science Academy, was afraid the \u201cvague\u201d language in the deal will come back to haunt teachers in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere&#8217;s language in there that can be used in a sneaky way, to manipulate some of the scheduling things that will be happening in the future,\u201d Gerleve said. \u201cIt\u2019s positive that there\u2019s language there because there never was before\u2026 I\u2019m just a little bit scared.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the day, Stacie Bell, a teacher at John T. Pirie Fine Arts and Academic Center, who showed up at a CTU rally in downtown Chicago, said the decreased public support tests her resolve as she fights for a cause she believes in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt makes the fight harder since we don\u2019t have that public support. It does hurt, but I know we\u2019re still fighting for what\u2019s best for the kids. I have to hold it in my heart that I\u2019m doing the right thing for the kids,\u201d Bell said as her voice was breaking.<\/p>\n<p>CPS called parents and guardians around 2 p.m. notifying them school and after school activities will resume tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p><em> Michael Lee contributed to this report. <\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Photo at top: CTU demonstrators march from the Thompson Center to City Hall Thursday morning to ask for the lost days.<br \/>\n(Grace Asiegbu\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Grace Asiegbu Medill Reports Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) agreed on a five-year labor contract, ending the record 11-day strike that kept 35,000 students at home. The two sides had reached an agreement late on Wednesday about the contract, with specifics including a nurse and a social worker in every [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":692,"featured_media":90771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4780,2951],"tags":[61,270,2558,371,111],"class_list":["post-90757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2019","category-politicsnational-security","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-public-schools","tag-ctu-strike","tag-education","tag-illinois"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>CTU strike finally comes to a close - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/ctu-strike-finally-comes-to-a-close\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CTU strike finally comes to a close - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Grace Asiegbu Medill Reports Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) agreed on a five-year labor contract, ending the record 11-day strike that kept 35,000 students at home. 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