Chicago Teachers Union demanding 9% annual raises, won't rule out a strike

The Chicago Teachers Union is demanding an annual pay raise of at least 9% and won’t rule out a strike, even with one of their own in the mayor’s office, according to CTU President Stacy Davis Gates.

“We’re a labor union. We’re not a political party [even though] people … want to redefine the Chicago Teachers Union in all types of ways,” Davis Gates told the Sun-Times in a wide-ranging interview Thursday.

“We don’t get to a strike unless we get to an impasse. … [But] we’re a labor union that understands the power of solidarity and the power of work stoppage. “

Under Rahm Emanuel, who closed 50 schools, and Lori Lightfoot, who broke her promise to support an elected school board, it was easy to galvanize CTU members. Both mayors endured teacher strikes.

But Mayor Brandon Johnson, a middle school teacher-turned paid organizer for the CTU, owes his election to the millions of dollars in campaign contributions and hundreds of foot soldiers provided by the union, its state and national federations and the CTU-affiliated United Working Families.

Throughout the campaign, Johnson was asked how he would represent taxpayers’ inancial interests against his former union. His decision to give teachers and school administrators 13 weeks of paid parental leave without demanding anything in return only fueled those suspicions.

Johnson’s presence changes the dynamics at the bargaining table.

Still, the teachers union is not going easy in its contract demands even as Johnson struggles to bankroll a migrant crisis that has strained city and Chicago Public Schools resources as federal stimulus funds are drying up.

Though Davis Gates twice told the Sun-Times the raise demand would be the lesser of 9% or the Consumer Price Index, on Friday, a spokesperson confirmed that the union’s written demand is for the greater of those two amounts.

“We are experiencing an extraordinary amount of inflation,” she said. Salaries and benefits also should be “commensurate to the level of education, the amount of time and experience that our members bring into school communities,” she added, though she wouldn’t say how long a contract she’s seeking.

“Our pay has not kept up with the prices at McDonald’s or the prices at Wendy’s. So what we are aiming to do is keep teachers in the city of Chicago. … If you want teachers in Chicago ... they have to be able to afford it.”

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Davis Gates called the negotiations an “awakening moment for women who dominate this profession.” The wage fight will “rest heavily” on teacher retention and on the “lowest-wage” paraprofessionals in CPS who deserve a raise “that lifts them out of almost poverty wages,” she said.

“We’re dealing with a teacher shortage. … We’re dealing with … young people who don’t want to become teachers because they understand, based on the experiences they had as a student, that … they would have to fight for all of the resources, deliver the instruction, then withstand the pressures of it. So those young people are choosing to do something else.”

This week, Davis Gates kicked off the drive for a new contract going way beyond the pay, health care and working condition demands that dominate most bargaining sessions. She wants a “baseline” of sports, music, art, world language, technology, after-school and restorative justice programs in every CPS school, so the quality of education no longer varies “from one ZIP code to another.”

The only question is how to pay for it.

“We are going to go beyond just making the mayor responsible. We’re going to make the city desire something they already deserve. We’re going to be knocking on doors, talking to families that send their children to the Chicago Public Schools,” Davis Gates said.

“We have a progressive governor of Illinois who has his sights set on higher office. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful story to tell that he is fully funding the Chicago Public Schools … after really a lifetime of Chicago Public Schools being underfunded?”