Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates says the CTU won’t rule out a strike as it begins talks on a new contract.
Ashlee Rezin / Sun-Times file
The Chicago Teachers Union is demanding an annual pay raise of 9% or the Consumer Price Index — whichever is less — and won’t rule out a strike, even with one of their own in the mayor’s office, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said Thursday.
“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.
“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. … It’s part of the DNA of who we are as an entity, the right to strike. And that is something that I wish for every worker in this country.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson owes his election to the millions of dollars in campaign contributions and hundreds of foot soldiers provided by the CTU, its state and national federations and the CTU-affiliated United Working Families.
Throughout the campaign, Johnson was asked how he would navigate that conflict of interest and represent the financial interests of Chicago taxpayers when he is beholden to his former union. The mayor’s decision to give teachers and school administrators 13 weeks of paid parental leave without demanding anything in return only fueled those suspicions.
Under Rahm Emanuel, who closed 50 schools, and Lori Lightfoot, who reneged on her promise to support an elected school board, it was easy to galvanize CTU membership against City Hall to the point where both mayors endured teacher strikes.
The presence of Johnson, a middle school teacher-turned paid organizer for the CTU 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 the resources of the city and the Chicago Public Schools at a time when federal stimulus funds propping up the budgets of both entities are drying up.
“We are experiencing an extraordinary amount of inflation,” she said, in explaining the demand for a raise equal to 9% or the Consumer Price Index. 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. … The cost of Chicago is climbing. If you want teachers in Chicago — if you want to live next door to a paraprofessional — they have to be able to afford it.”
Brandon Johnson, then a Cook County commissioner, spoke at the ceremony in September 2022 when the street in front of the Chicago Teachers Union’s headquarters was designated Honorary Karen Lewis CTU Way, in tribute to Lewis, the former CTU president who died of a brain tumor. Current CTU President Stacy Davis Gates (far left) also attended.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Davis Gates called the negotiations an “awakening moment for women who dominate this profession.” She said the “wage fight is going to rest heavily” on teacher retention and on the “lowest-wage” paraprofessionals in Chicago Public Schools who deserve a raise “that lifts them out of almost poverty wages.”
The goal will be to modify their pay scale “to bring their wages up because these are women who…reside in the neighborhoods in which they work,” Davis Gates 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.”
Earlier this week, Davis Gates kicked off the drive for a new contract that goes way beyond the pay, health care and working condition demands that dominate most bargaining sessions.
She’s talking about developing what she called a “baseline” that includes sports, music, art, world language, technology, after-school and restorative justice programs in every Chicago Public School so that the quality of education no longer differs “from one zip code to another.”
As a parent with three children in Chicago Public Schools, Johnson reiterated this week that he agrees with those lofty goals. The only question is, how to pay for it.
“That’s what’s different about 2024 than 2019. 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. We’re going to ask our civic partners to come inside. We want open bargaining,” 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?”