The Chicago teachers union entered into the weekend without a contract resolution after negotiations broke down following two days of a teachers strike.
While union representatives did highlight some progress, which included a written counterproposal to increase the amount librarians, nurses, special education teachers, bilingual teachers and social workers. However, union officials maintain that such an offer still falls short in terms of the goals set forth by the Chicago teachers union, as teachers seek higher wages and increase in school funding.
“This is something we’ve been fighting and fighting for, and we finally did see some proposals,” CPS school social worker Emily Penn told the Chicago Tribune. “We’re relieved the district actually put it in writing... It is not enough. Hopefully, we can continue to bargain in good faith.”
As a part of the negotiating team, Penn and other Chicago teachers union representatives met with city officials on the other side of the bargaining table at Malcolm X College on Friday, telling the press afterwards that a CPS lawyer had asked union officials to focus more on the negotiations than on rallies and picket line strikes.
That comment enraged the teachers union Vice President Stacy Davis Gates, who subsequently responded that “rich white men tell black women with children in the Chicago Public Schools what to do all the time."
Gates added that her name was misspelled in the note from a CPS attorney, who claimed the city “cannot afford to have another three to four recess in negotiations while both of you are gone.”
“My name is misspelled. So pay attention to what’s being said here," Davis Gates told the Tribune. “... His name is spelled right. There’s something to this. The city has a legacy, a culture, of putting black women in the position where life is harder, where they have to be silenced, to take the backseat, and this is an element of it.”
Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot alongside Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson released a statement on Friday afternoon, saying their counterproposals regarding classroom sizes and school staffing demonstrate that they are “working to the core issues that CTU has said are central to reaching an agreement — in writing.”
“We are encouraged that today’s negotiations were productive and yielded real movement on a number of key issues,” their joint statement read.
But just hours before the release of their statement, the mayor had publicly stated that the school district’s offer would not include any more financial backing.