Chicago teachers strike likely to continue for second day
(Reuters) - Thousands of public school teachers marched in downtown Chicago on Monday as the first strike in a quarter century showed no signs of ending soon in a dispute over reforms sought by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and endorsed by President Barack Obama's administration.
Some 29,000 teachers and support staff in the nation's third-largest school system were involved, leaving parents of 350,000 students between kindergarten and high school age to find alternative supervision.
"There's no excuse for either side for not coming to an agreement," said Faith Griggs-York, mother of a first-grader at Agassiz Elementary School, as she dropped her daughter off at a community center a mile from the school.
"I think both sides, because of what they are doing to parents and because of what they are doing to kids, should be embarrassed," Griggs-York said.
The teachers' union called the strike Sunday night after months of negotiations did not resolve major disagreements over how teachers will be evaluated and giving school principals more authority over hiring.
The union and school district negotiated throughout Monday, but when School Board President David Vitale emerged from the talks, he said no agreement had been reached.
"We have said to them (the union) again that we believe we should resolve this tomorrow, that we are close enough to get this resolved," Vitale said. The teachers union did not immediately respond to a request for reaction to Vitale's comments.
A large crowd of striking teachers in red T-shirts rallied in downtown Chicago on Monday afternoon. Police officials at the scene estimated the crowd at around 10,000.
The rally had a carnival atmosphere but among the signs calling for a fair contract were plenty of homemade ones aimed at Emanuel, a Democrat, including "Fight Rahmunism" and "Actions Speak Louder Than Rahm."
"This is not about money. It's about working conditions and class sizes that haven't changed in 35 years," said Karen Kreinik, 46, a pre-school teacher at De Diego Academy. "It's absolutely shocking to me that we have a Democratic mayor who's anti-union."
Emanuel is among a number of big city U.S. mayors who have championed school reforms and Obama's education secretary, Arne Duncan - a former head of Chicago public schools - has endorsed them.
The school district's charter schools, which account for about 12 percent of students, opened as usual. The mayor wants to expand the number of charter schools, which are publicly funded but non-union.
Churches, community centers, some schools and other public facilities opened to care for thousands of children under a $25 million strike contingency plan financed by the school district. The children were supervised half a day and received breakfast and lunch, allowing some parents to work.
The union has called the plan to care for children during the strike a "train wreck." It warned that caregivers for the children do not have proper training, and there are fears of an increase in gang-related violence in some high-crime areas.
About 20 teachers picketed in front of Overton Elementary School on Chicago's South Side, wearing red T-shirts, carrying strike signs and singing "We're not gonna take it," the chorus from the rock band Twisted Sister's popular anthem.
Several passing cars honked in support, prompting loud cheers from the striking teachers.
Chicago's South Side, often mentioned by first lady Michele Obama in reference to her humble roots, is one of the city's poorest districts and has a large African-American population.
POLITICAL RAMIFICATIONS
The Chicago confrontation also threatens to sour relations between Obama's Democratic Party and labor unions before the presidential election on November 6.
While Obama is expected to win the vote in Chicago and his home state of Illinois, union anger could spill into neighboring Midwestern states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio, where the race with Republican challenger Mitt Romney is much closer.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama was aware of the situation in Chicago. "We hope both sides are able to come together to settle this quickly in the best interest of Chicago's students," Carney said.
Campaigning in the battleground state of Ohio, Romney criticized the teachers union. "I want our kids to have the skills they need for the jobs of tomorrow and that means put our kids first and put the teachers' unions behind."
Emanuel said again on Monday that teachers should be evaluated based on student performance on standardized tests.
Union President Karen Lewis, who has called Emanuel a bully, said standardized tests do not take into account inner city poverty as well as hunger and violence in the streets.
More than 80 percent of Chicago students qualify for free lunches because they come from low-income households, and Chicago students have performed poorly compared with national averages on most reading, math and science tests.
Union officials said more than a quarter of Chicago public school teachers could lose their jobs if they are evaluated based on the tests.
"Evaluate us on what we do, not the lives of our children we do not control," Lewis said on Sunday.
Dick Simpson, a former city council member, or alderman, said that past Chicago mayors would have called negotiators to the mayor's office to get a deal by offering the union concessions. But dire financial straits preclude Emanuel from throwing money at the problem. The last Chicago teachers strike in 1987 lasted 19 days.
"Most parents now are supporting the teachers. If the strike were to go on that long, the public would be mad," said Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
(Additional reporting by James Kelleher, Peter Bohan, Ann Saphir and Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Greg McCune and Lisa Shumaker)
Teachers strike heads to Day Two; Board chief tells union ‘we should resolve this’ Tuesday
Chicago braced for Day Two of a teacher strike Tuesday, with teachers buoyed by a boisterous first day of picketing and contract talks side-stepping what Mayor Rahm Emanuel identified as the two major sticking points.
School Board President David Vitale left the first post-strike talks Monday at 6:40 p.m., saying CPS officials had told the union “We should resolve this tomorrow. We are close enough.’’
However, Vitale conceded negotiators did not even attack what the mayor contended are the two biggest issues in the nine-month dispute: job security and teacher evaluations.
“The union said they were not ready for discussion on those particular issues,’’ said Vitale, leaving behind other Chicago Public School negotiators to continue talks late into the night on “technical issues.’’
Vitale said both sides made proposals, and that they would be analyzed overnight.
“We’re working at this, but this is hard work,” Vitale said. “We want to get this resolved. We want our kids back in school.”
However, when talks concluded three hours later, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said the two big issues were not discussed because “they didn’t have anything different to offer us.”
Sea of red
Hours earlier, thousands of striking Chicago teachers flooded the Loop, rallying for a new contract on Day One of the first Chicago teachers strike in 25 years. Police estimated the crowd at 5,000 to 7,000.
A river of red-shirted teachers, waving banners and chanting, clogged South Clark Street during their march from Chicago Public Schools headquarters to City Hall. A frequent chant: “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Rahm Emanuel has got to go!”
One of many who expressed delight at the turnout was Susan Kang, a teacher at Sumner Elementary.
“It’s really amazing,’’ said Kang. “This is what we were hoping for — that we’d come out strong and send a message to the [Chicago School] Board and Rahm Emanuel that they can’t just bully us around.’’
The intersection of Clark and Monroe turned into a knot of solid red, clogged with so many people it was hard to move. The constant beat of drums and muffled chants gave the scene almost a carnival atmosphere. And more people kept pouring into the area.
Gisele Anderson, 10, held up a sign that read: “Treat my dad with respect.” Gisele’s father is a teacher at Owen Scholastic Academy.
“We don’t want to strike,” said Gisele’s father, Eric Anderson. “My daughters are both CPS students. As a teacher and a parent, it’s tough for us as well. We have to figure out child care just like everybody else. So we’d like to see this resolved.”
Drawing attention
The strike that stilled the classrooms of the nation’s third-largest school system also drew national attention Monday.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said he was “disappointed” in the union for turning its back on negotiations, and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) urged both sides back to the negotiating table.
On the education front, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing took up the CTU’s cause.
FairTest policy analyst Lisa Guisbond called Chicago’s strike “the tip of the iceberg of teacher frustration with so-called ‘reform’ policies, which place the blame on educators for problems largely caused by the impoverished settings in which their students must live.”
Sunday night, Emanuel blasted the walkout as “a strike of choice.’’
On Monday, he urged both sides to “stay at the table and finish it for our children.” In particular, he defended the board’s offer on what to do with laid-off teachers, insisting that principals needed the power to pick their own school teams.
“If we’re gonna hold our local principals in the school accountable for getting the results we need, they need to pick the best qualified [teachers],” the mayor said.
However, CTU officials said the board was not being fair to teachers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. And they feared that number will be on a constant increase, amid CPS plans to close more schools and create more charters that do not hire CTU teachers.
And on teacher evaluations, late Monday CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey said “there’s been a truthfulness issue on the question of evaluation,” because the mayor was claiming it was a non-strikeable issue and the union insists it’s strikeable.
Monday morning, teachers showed up in force on picket lines as parents dropped their children off at 144 contingency schools, as well as at parks, libraries and YMCAs.
Many parents expressed frustrations with CPS and Emanuel, while aldermen were virtually unanimous in blaming the union.
Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26th) brought his son to work Monday as he headed to a third-floor meeting room at City Hall to get briefed on the strike.
Maldonado blamed the union as he walked into the briefing room with his 7-year-old son, Roberto II, carrying a backpack. “This is the effect of the union right now,” said Maldonado, whose wife had the couple’s two other children Monday.
“We’re lucky enough that is not that much of a hardship on us, but it’s a hardship on the kids.”
“The reason that they decided to go on strike is a stretch,” he continued. “If there are no challenges in terms of the financial aspects of the negotiations and the only hang-up is the thing about imposing upon principals to hire laid-off teachers. . . . I need to give [the principal] the flexibility to hire who they perceive to be the best teachers. That’s just logical.”
At Lane Tech High School on the Northwest Side, more than 200 teachers marched along Addison and Western, chanting and prompting numerous motorists to honk their car horns in support. A CTA bus joined the loud chorus of horns, and a Chicago Police car turned on its lights as it went past.
Steve Parsons, the lead picket who teaches AP psychology at the high school, said Monday: “It’s all up to Mayor Emanuel. We all want to go back to the classrooms. The mayor is not valuing our opinions as educators.”
Honking horns of support also greeted the dozens of pickets at Curie High School on the Southwest Side.
Curie’s union delegate, Adam Heenan, who was up until 2 a.m. preparing for the strike, was outside Curie at 6:30 a.m. Monday. He said teachers were “prepared to strike again tomorrow and prepared to go back to the classrooms tomorrow — that’s what we do, we prepare. This is new for everybody.”
About 30 students walked past their picketing teachers to show up at Hefferan on the West Side. That was down from a typical attendance of 260, Principal Jacqueline Hearns said.
At Mount Greenwood Elementary on the Southwest Side, the Ohse family — including Keira, 6, Katie, 4, and Connor, 1 — arrived wearing red T-shirts in support of the striking teachers. “We have two kids here at Mt. Greenwood,” said Barb Ohse, standing with her husband, Rory, “and we’re both union with the fire department, and we’re firm believers in the rights of the students and teachers.
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