By Jesse Sharkey, CTU President | February 5, 2021 | News
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has walked away from the bargaining table again after instructing her CPS leadership team to submit a “last, best and final offer” to the Union at 11:15 p.m. on Thursday night.
The mayor’s offer would pause in-person learning district-wide only if there are COVID-19 outbreaks in 50 percent of Chicago Public Schools buildings at the same time. Meaning that
COVID-19 cases in more than 200 schools would not be cause to consider the reinstitution of remote learning in the view of the mayor or CPS leadership.
The mayor’s proposal denies remote work accommodations to 75 percent of educators with household members at high-risk for COVID-19, even though none of their students have opted for in-person learning.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS CEO Janice K. Jackson announced Thursday they are working on a response to a counter proposal from the Chicago Teachers.
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Chicago educators organize independent opposition to teacher union’s plans to reopen schools
The fight to prevent school reopenings in Chicago, which is the focal point of the class struggle in the United States, qualitatively deepened on Thursday evening. The Chicago Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee held a powerful meeting that gave voice to the most advanced and determined educators striving to close schools and contain the pandemic in Chicago and worldwide.
The committee meeting took place under conditions where the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) officials are continuing their secret negotiations to try to reach a deadly compromise to reopen the schools. The resumption of in-person classes in the nation’s third largest school district is key to the Biden’s administration’s plans to reopen all K-8 schools by mid-April so that the parents of school children can be sent back to work.