CHICAGO — The city's teachers agreed Tuesday to return to the classroom
after more than a week on the picket lines, ending a spiteful stalemate
with Mayor Rahm Emanuel that put teacher evaluations and job security at the center of a national debate about the future of public education.
Union delegates voted to formally suspend the strike after discussing
details of a proposed contract settlement worked out over the weekend.
Classes could resume as early as Wednesday.
The walkout, the first in Chicago in 25 years, shut down the nation's
third-largest school district just days after 350,000 students had
returned from summer vacation. Tens of thousands of parents were forced
to find alternatives for idle children, including many whose
neighborhoods have been wracked by gang violence in recent months.
Tuesday's vote was not on the contract offer itself, but on whether to
continue the strike. The contract will now be submitted to a vote by the
full membership of more than 25,000 teachers.
The walkout was the first for a major American city in at least six
years. It drew national attention because it posed a high-profile test
for teachers unions, which have seen their political influence
threatened by a growing reform movement. Unions have pushed back against
efforts to expand charter schools, bring in private companies to help
with failing schools and link teacher evaluations to student test
scores.
The strike carried political implications, too, raising the risk of a
protracted labor battle in President Barack Obama's hometown at the
height of the fall campaign, with a prominent Democratic mayor and
Obama's former chief of staff squarely in the middle. Emanuel's forceful
demands for reform have angered the teachers.
The teachers walked out Sept. 10 after months of tense contract talks
that for a time appeared to be headed toward a peaceful resolution.
Emanuel and the union agreed in July on a deal to implement a longer
school day with a plan to hire back 477 teachers who had been laid off
rather than pay regular teachers more to work longer hours. That raised
hopes the contract would be settled before the start of fall classes,
but bargaining stalled on other issues.
Emanuel decried the teachers' decision to leave classrooms, calling the walkout unnecessary and a "strike of choice."
Almost from the beginning, the two sides couldn't even agree on whether
they were close to a deal. Emanuel said an agreement was within easy
reach and could be sealed with school in session. The union insisted
that dozens of issues remained unresolved.
Chicago's long history as a union stronghold seemed to work to the
teachers' advantage. As they walked the picket lines, they were joined
by many of the very people who were most inconvenienced by the work
stoppage: parents who had to scramble to find babysitters or a
supervised place for children to pass the time.
To win friends, the union representing 25,500 teachers engaged in
something of a publicity campaign, telling parents repeatedly about
problems with schools and the barriers that have made it more difficult
to serve their kids. They described classrooms that are stifling hot
without air conditioning, important books that are unavailable and
supplies as basic as toilet paper that are sometimes in short supply.
As the strike entered its second week, Emanuel turned to the courts to
try to force teachers back to the classroom by filing a lawsuit that
described the walkout as an unlawful danger to the public.
The complaint sought a court order to end the strike, saying it was
illegal because it endangered the health and safety of students and
concerned issues — evaluations, layoffs and recall rights — that state
law says cannot be grounds for a work stoppage.
A judge set a hearing for Wednesday, but the case was likely to be moot if teachers went back to class.
The strike upended a district in which the vast majority of students
are poor and minority. It also raised the concerns of parents who
worried not just about their kids' education but their safety. Chicago's
gang violence has spiked this year, with scores of shootings reported
throughout a long, bloody summer and bystanders sometimes caught in the
crossfire.
The district staffed more than 140 schools with non-union workers and
central office employees so students who are dependent on
school-provided meals would have a place to eat breakfast and lunch. But
most parents refused to leave their children at unfamiliar schools
where they would be thrown together with kids and supervising adults
they may never have met.
When the two sides met at the bargaining table, money was only part of
the problem. With an average salary of $76,000, Chicago teachers are
among the highest-paid in the nation. After weeks of talks, the district
proposed a 16 percent raise over four years — far beyond what most
American employers have offered in the aftermath of the Great Recession.
But the evaluations and job security measures stirred the most intense debate.
The union said the evaluation system was unfair because it relied too
heavily on test scores and did not take into account outside factors
that affect student performance such as poverty, violence and
homelessness.
The union also pushed for a policy to give laid-off teachers first dibs
on open jobs anywhere in the district. The district said that would
prevent principals from hiring the teachers they thought best qualified
and most appropriate for the position. The tentative settlement proposed
giving laid-off teachers first shot at schools that absorbed their
former students.
Emanuel did not personally negotiate but monitored the talks through aides.
The strike was just the latest and highest-stakes chapter in a long and often contentious battle between him and the union.
When he took office last year, the former White House chief of staff
inherited a school district facing a $700 million budget shortfall. Not
long after, his administration rescinded 4 percent raises for teachers.
He then asked the union to re-open its contract and accept 2 percent pay
raises in exchange for lengthening the school day for students by 90
minutes. The union refused.
Emanuel, who promised a longer school day during his campaign,
attempted to go around the union by asking teachers at individual
schools to waive the contract and add 90 minutes to the day. He halted
the effort after being challenged by the union before the Illinois
Educational Labor Relations Board.
