Teachers Union Rejects Brizard Pay Raise Plan

By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 26, 2011 2:42PM

Unsurprisingly, the Chicago Teachers Union rejected an offer from Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard of a 2 percent pay increase for elementary school teachers in exchange for extending the school day by 90 minutes a day.

CTU President Karen Lewis said in a statement released to media the union would not be "bullied" by Brizard's public attempts at using the media to float the pay raise proposal.

“We fully support a better, smarter school day for our children but teachers are now being asked to work 29 percent longer for only a 2 percent pay increase. To that we say thanks but no thanks.”

Chicago Public Schools have the shortest classroom days in the nation, but Lewis pointed out the other work teachers do before and after the school day - meeting with parents and students; grading papers; creating lesson plans - and said the proposed 29 percent increase in the school day, with only a wage increase of just over $3 an hour, isn't enough to get the union to accept.

Mayor Emanuel supports a longer school day and a group of religious leaders have signed a petition calling for a longer school day. Lewis stood steadfast amidst the rising tide.

"We’ve been quite an earful,” Lewis said. “Nobody seems to know what it’s like to work in a school building. And that there’s been no plan. It’s just ‘we want a longer day, we want a longer day.’ We are not going to extend what we’re doing now because we have teachers who literally have absolutely no time to go to the bathroom. That is the way the schedule is now. So we are not going to add to that without a plan in place.”