Chicago is expecting more strikes as teachers at small school networks are authorizing walkouts
At Chicago, 94% of the teacher casting ballots in favor of strike if needed, on this week. This could become the city largest strike of the teacher. Teachers are banding together to boost their bargaining powers.
The 134 educators have common demands as increase in wages, student safety and increase in student support programs. Teachers from other schools are also planning to join them and strike votes.
Eralda Horton said at a press conference outside of her school, Instituto Health Science Career Academy, “our teachers said yes to fully staffed classrooms and being held accountable to provide services for our diverse learners. Our teachers said yes to your students and parents — we will fight for your kids; we will fight for you.”
Two Instituto del Progreso Latino schools, the Chicago High School for the Arts, Latino Youth High School and Youth Connection Leadership Academy easily exceeded the mainstream needed to place teachers for a strike if contract dialogs do not reach to a conclusion, after strike approval offers at them.
Chicago Teachers Union charter division President Chris Baehrend said that our issues and interest are the same – student interests. He also said that charter industry, your notice is served. We are going to change how you operate.
The executive director of ChiArts, José Ochoa, said his administration was dissatisfied in the strike approval vote and would do everything it could to evade a strike by its teachers.
Here is the list of schools where teacher have voted in favor of authorizing a strike:
- Chicago High School for the Arts, also known as ChiArts. The 38 teachers in the union have a particular focus on asking management to pay into their pension fund.
- The two Instituto del Progreso Latino high schools have 72 teachers. Both schools are bargaining on the same contract.
- Youth Connection Leadership Academy, where 11 educators are union members, belongs to the Youth Connection Charter School network, which contracts with several entities to run its 19 charter schools around the state.
- Teachers Pilsen Wellness Center runs one high school, Latino Youth High School, with 13 unionized educators. The school is owned by Youth Connection Charter School. The union says management is asking for a longer school day and school year, and has refused demands for a wage hike.
The five charter and contract schools announcing strike votes represent only a small portion of the charter networks currently in negotiations. Nearly all are either trying to reach agreement on a new contract or negotiating after previous contracts expired over the summer
