CPS-CTU Labor Impasse Update: Rahm Gets More Hands-On, Lewis Doubts It Will Matter

By Chuck Sudo in News on Aug 24, 2012 2:35PM

© 2012 City of Chicago, photo by Brooke Collins

Negotiations between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union on a new labor deal will continue without the threat of a strike on Sept. 4. CTU president Karen Lewis said she has no intention of filing a 10-day strike notice by Saturday, which is the deadline to do so for a strike to coincide with the beginning of the school year for most of the schools.

Lewis made her announcement during a leafleting at the 95th Street Red Line station this morning. It’s been clear for a while Lewis would use the 10-day strike notice as a hammer in an attempt to spur negotiations between the union and CPS. Lewis has said repeatedly that talks on a new contract have been unproductive, while CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard disputed Lewis’s take, saying progress has been made. Both CPS and CTU are arguing over how the new longer school day has been implemented at Track E schools so far. Brizard released a statement saying the longer day was working and a strike would undo all of the benefits. Lewis said the longer school day isn’t working and “and if we just leave it up to these guys, it will never be a better school day.”

We tend to believe Lewis at this point, especially after Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that he intends to take a more hands-on approach to avoid the first teachers strike in a quarter century. A mayoral confidant told the Sun-Times the mayor plans to “ratchet up” negotiations with the union. The source said Emanuel plans to meet with a “second level of negotiations” involving people who aren’t currently at the bargaining table, and organizing a series of rallies, protest marches and news conferences with community groups to try to steer the message back to “don’t do this to the kids.”

Emanuel’s more aggressive approach may be a case of too little too late, especially for a man who has seemingly been itching for a showdown with the teachers union almost from the moment he was sworn in as mayor. Lewis, at the leafleting, said it won’t matter. “Ultimately, (Emanuel) is going to tell the board what to do anyway.”

If a teachers strike occurs the contingency plan the Chicago School Board was asked to authorize Wednesday, which would authorize vendors to provide food, shelter and other “non-instructional services” to students displaced by a strike, could cost up to $25 million. The contingency plan will be executed only if the union issues a 10-day strike notice.