Report: Chicago Teachers Strike Nears End
The Chicago Teachers Union and CPS have come to a tentative contract agreement that would allow children to return to school on Monday.
After a week of picketing and intense negotiations, the Chicago teachers strike appears to be nearing an end.
School board president David Vitale told reporters that the "heavy lifting" was over, according to the Huffington Post.
The Chicago Tribune reports that a tentative deal has been reached and union delegates will review the proposal this afternoon and will vote on Sunday.
The strike brought parents and teachers out across Beverly, Mt. Greenwood and Morgan Park. Large class sizes, building conditions, learning resources and a focus on standardized testing were all issues of contention for many local parents and educators.
Read all of Patch's coverage of the strike.
Update 4 p.m.
In a news conference Friday afternoon union president Karen Lewis said that the delegates will meet on Sunday to decide whether or not to suspend the strike, however a final vote on the contract will not be held at that time.
Dan Lambert
3:10 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
What points do you think are a MUST HAVE in the final contract?
Braze
7:07 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
Why are they wasting a whole day on Saturday?
They should provide details to the delegates on Saturday for them to either move it to a vote or not endorse it and go back to the table.
If they endorse it the teachers can vote it Sunday.
It looks to be a bad deal the way they are going about it. If Karen Lewis states that the delegates are to see it Sunday and then are being asked to forgo the Strike and go back to work on Monday and the contract is still not close, I smell a dead fish here!
Just remember, for every three days on Strike the teachers lose one percent of there pay for the year, so with Monday being out that is 2% that the Board did not pay out to teacher.
Braze
9:32 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012
So Dan Lambert, how does this Headline work for you?
"The Chicago Teachers Union and CPS have come to a tentative contract agreement that would allow children to return to school on Monday."
That headline is really stretching the truth. They said they have a "Framework" plan that is not a tentative agreement. The CTU Board is not being allowed to see this Framework until Sunday, so Karen Lewis can jam it down the CTU Boards throat at the last minute on Sunday, and leaves not room for time to digest it, let alone Karen says the time needed to review everything will take weeks to do.
It sounds like Obama and Rahm have put the pressure on the CTU to end this thing and work out the details in the weeks and months to come AFTER the ekection.
Make it look bad for Obama when his own city teachers are out on strike and being broadcast on all of the national stations with the big red moo moo leading the way.
How sad that politics will dictate the outcome of this strike, and the teachers will be lead blindly to take this unknown offer.