The Chicago Teachers Union said on Friday it is joining forces with Fire Fighters Local Union 2 to push for a deal on their respective labor contracts.
The unions’ collaboration is a “natural gathering,” Patrick Cleary, president of Chicago Fire Fighters Local Union 2, said at a news conference Friday afternoon. “We both have public safety issues where the schools are in dire need, firehouses are in dire need and the vehicles at the Chicago Fire Department … are falling apart.”
CTU is pushing to land a contract Chicago Public Schools doesn’t seem “ready to settle,” Stacy Davis Gates, teachers union president, said Friday.
“We’re also going to put pressure on the bosses in this city to give the firefighters what they need as well.”
The unions were vague about specific plans to demonstrate together next week — just that they plan to “unify” as CPS schools are on spring break.
The “solidarity pledge” came as CTU and the district are closing in on a full year of contentious negotiations in which district CEO Pedro Martinez was fired by the old, mayoral-appointed board and a new 21-member partially appointed and elected school board is divided. Underlying the discord is money, or how to provide more resources to a school district in financial straits.
The teachers union started with 748 proposals in mid-April and submitted its last, best and final offer on March 4 with five sticking points.
Those were narrowed down to just three this week: time between teacher evaluations, additional elementary instructional preparatory time and raises for veteran teachers. It seemed like both sides were closer than ever to an agreement Thursday, but neither CPS nor CTU could provide an answer as to when they expect to compromise.
Davis Gates on Friday blamed Martinez for the delay.
“How much prep time is Pedro getting to get to his next job?” she asked. “How much prep time is he getting to give himself a jump-start at his next career on the dime of Chicago taxpayers?”
During negotiations Thursday, the district proposed more money for veteran teacher pay and increased minutes for elementary prep time, according to both CTU and CPS.
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CPS is waiting for CTU’s response, it said Friday. The two sides are less than $10 million away from an agreement, district officials said, but have some disagreements on how to “structure” that money. They also disagree over where to add extra planning time into the elementary school day.
“We have been very clear on what are the things that we will compromise — like we’re increasing financial incentives, we’re increasing some options,” said Bogdana Chkoumbova, CPS chief education officer, at a Friday news conference just moments after CTU’s concluded. “And what are the things that we’re not necessarily so comfortable compromising, such as things that impact students and impact services in our schools.”
The slowdown comes after almost a year of bargaining and a monthslong public budget dispute over how CPS would be able to pay for the proposals in the new contract, in addition to a $175 million pension payment to the city for non-teaching staff.
On Thursday — the day before the announced contract holdup — school board President Sean Harden delayed a vote on a budget amendment that would have paved the path for accounting for the costs of both. The already debt-laden district settled its $9.9 billion budget in July without factoring in CTU’s contract or the pension payment — which is the obligation of the city.
The delayed vote was notable because the amendment would have opened the door to a $242 million debt borrowing scenario proposed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former union organizer and close ally of the CTU and its president, Davis Gates.
After a last-minute meeting with city, district and teachers union stakeholders, including the mayor, on Wednesday, Davis Gates was firm that a final contract proposal would need to be reached before the budget amendment vote, as per protocol.
Davis Gates has been unable to get the contract over the line, despite $300 million in extra money released from taxing districts to CPS this year. That’s in part because the district is facing serious financial headwinds.
Jill Jaworski, the city’s chief financial officer, recently proposed that CPS could get $240 million in money released from an existing debt service fund, which school districts use to pay off debt similar to a mortgage or a construction loan on a house.
Martinez has said the proposed borrowing strategies would saddle the district further with debt. Meanwhile, the teachers union in recent weeks has outwardly supported the borrowing scenarios proposed by Johnson’s aides.
Pavlyn Jankov, CTU’s research director, called Jaworski’s refinancing plan, in a statement to the Tribune, “a standard tool in the district’s arsenal and, given the terms in front of (CPS) could make absolute sense as a way to update this year’s budget.”
“Solvency for the Chicago Public Schools isn’t going to come in the short term, and we need Chicago public schools in the long term,” Davis Gates said on Friday, when asked about CPS’ budget gap.
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