By Brendan O’Brien
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Talks between the Chicago Teachers Union and the mayor on a plan to reopen the third-largest U.S. school district amid the pandemic have broken off after the union rejected terms of her “last, best and final offer,” the two sides said on Friday.
The union representing 28,000 public school educators in the Chicago Public Schools district said Mayor Lori Lightfoot and district leaders “have walked away from the bargaining table” after submitting their latest proposal.
In a statement, the teachers union criticized terms of the mayor’s plan that the union said would require a suspension of in-person learning district-wide only if COVID-19 outbreaks occur in half of Chicago’s public school sites at the same time.
Under such a scenario, an outbreak of coronavirus cases in more than 200 schools “would not be cause to consider reinstitution of remote learning” for the district’s 335,000 students, the union said.
Moreover, the union said the mayor’s proposal denies remote-work accommodations to 75% of educators with household members at high risk for COVID-19.
The mayor and Chicago Public Schools were not immediately available for comment.
The union’s press release came after Lightfoot said in a separate statement that she and district officials had presented union leaders with a “last, best and final offer” on Thursday, and were awaiting a response from the teachers.
“We’re deeply disappointed that the mayor has chosen to stop negotiating,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey said. “Our stance hasn’t changed: We are willing to work and we are willing to negotiate.”
The two sides have been negotiating for months over a gradual reopening of schools, with teachers demanding stronger safety protocols to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in classrooms.
Over the last two weeks, tensions intensified when union membership voted not to return to schools until a deal was reached. CPS Chief Executive Janice Jackson then threatened to lock out 13,000 educators from their online systems if they refused to report to work.
The union responded by saying teachers would stop working altogether, form picket lines and strike if the district retaliated against any members who refused to teach in school buildings.
After substantial progress was made in talks on Monday, CPS called for a two-day cooling-off period as several issues remained unresolved. The two sides had reached agreements on health and safety protocols, ventilation in schools, contact tracing and creating health committees.
The parties remained at odds on vaccinations for teachers and infection metrics used to decide when to close schools. Another sticking point was accommodations for teachers to work remotely if they have or live with people who have medical conditions, the teachers’ union said.
The district has been teaching students remotely since the pandemic forced it to close school buildings last spring. About 62,000 elementary and middle-school students signed up to take some classes in person starting this week.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Richard Chang)
