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Subscribe to RSSMembers of the Chicago Teachers Union staffed informational picket lines at six elementary schools on Monday, threatening to strike if a deal on a new contract is not reached by Labor Day, NBCChicago.com reports.
Teachers staged the protests at schools already in session to call attention to stalled contract negotiations, according to NBCChicago.com.
“Students come first, but you can’t have a quality school district by putting a fair and equitable labor agreement last," said Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis in a statement. "After Labor Day we want to be where we belong — in the classroom. However, if talks continue as they have been, we will be where we need to be (and that is) on the line.”
Union officials have begun printing strike signs, The Associated Press reported on Monday. Upwards of 400,000 students would be affected by a walkout.
Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com
Teachers and school officials have been locked in contract talks since last year and still disagree on wages, health benefits and job security. The Chicago Teachers Union represents 25,000 members.
The union and Board of Education already agreed on one big issue — hiring more teachers to help the district manage a longer school day rather than asking existing teachers to work more hours.
Chicago’s public school students have the shortest school day — 5 hours and 45 minutes — among the nation's 50 largest districts, according the National Council on Teacher Quality. The national average is 6.7 hours in school.
Chicago pushes longer school days as key to achievement
Leaders of the Chicago Public Schools hope more time in the classroom will mean better grades and more high school graduates from the nation's third-largest school system.
"Our focus should be on our kids and reaching a fair agreement at the negotiation table, where we have made significant progress over the last few weeks,” CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll told NBCChicago.com. “Students must always come first and shouldn't be distracted from their learning especially now that kids throughout the district are benefiting from the start of the full school day."
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Students come first? Let us try to be honest here. Teacher's salaries seem to come first, that and keeping the union leaders well paid. Most people I have discussed educational experience with say that in all of the years of schooling they can count the good teachers, the ones the taught them well and seemed to care about them personally on the fingers of one hand.
Hummm Chicago teachers!! Nothing to brag about!!
Wow, give a moment of second thought to your remark (above), and ask yourself if you think that's fair, unbiased and non-judgmental?
There are many thousands of school teachers in Chicago, the third most populous city in our nation, and one of America's great cities. Do you honestly think it appropriate to judge and dismiss the worth of thousands of fellow American citizens and fellow human beings because of some uninformed bias you may hold about the City in which they live and work, or the school district they serve as employees, or their chosen (and very admirable) profession? Is there some other view you may hold which allows you to unabashedly speak so derisively of these people. Why is it that you think you are in the right judging others whom you do not know?
Average earnings for CPS teachers (based on salaries, holidays, vacation, employee contributions, union dues, sick days and average hours worked per week) is $ 34.50 per hour.(By The Windy City YR of Belmont Terrace, April 17, 2012 at 10:23 am).
Jacob Fischler/MEDILL
The average salary of CPS teachers has gone up nearly 29 percent since 2006. The current collective bargaining agreement went into effect in 2007.
Easy to assume that long term CPS teachers make much more than $ 34.50 per hour.
Some are worth it, others not. Just like any other profession.
$34.50 an hour and the kids that they taught are killing themselves in the streets 10 at a time.
good job there!
CTU facing massive deficit but... Stewart's top eight staff make between $180,000 and $200,000 per year
John Kugler - April, 2008
(Inflate to 2012 standards).
The evolutionists can witness Darwinism at work. What an opportunity for science.
Currently, this is the level of detail I can stomach on this matter:
This is is the degree of detail I can handle on this matter as the parent of a CPS kid: