The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) agreed a return to in-person classes late Monday night but not before organizers called Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) “relentlessly stupid … relentlessly stubborn” in negotiations over coronavirus safety precautions.
The deal promises to have face-to-face learning underway Wednesday pending ratification by the union’s roughly 25,000 members. Issues that sparked the four-day stoppage have been a push to close down schools amid coronavirus outbreaks and expanded compulsory testing, as Breitbart News reported.
“We know this has been very difficult for students and families,” Lightfoot said at an evening news conference. “Some will ask who won and who lost. No one wins when our students are out of the place where they can learn the best and where they’re safest.”
For their part, union leaders acknowledged it wasn’t a perfect outcome but teachers claimed they wanted to be back in class with students.
AP reports earlier Monday, union leader Jesse Sharkey said his members and the district remained “apart on a number of key features,” accusing Lightfoot of refusing to compromise on teachers’ main priorities.
“The mayor is being relentless, but she’s being relentlessly stupid, she’s being relentlessly stubborn,” Sharkey said, playing on a reference the former prosecutor mayor made about refusing to “relent” in negotiations. “She’s relentlessly refusing to seek accommodation and we’re trying to find a way to get people back in school.”
Lightfoot accused teachers of “abandoning” students and shot back at the union president.
“If I had a dollar for every time some privileged, clouted white guy called me stupid, I’d be a bazillionaire,” Lightfoot told WLS-TV.
The Chicago schools dispute has been prolonged and nasty, as Breitbart News reported.
Two days ago a delegate with the CTU was reported to have claimed he will “report” union employees who attend work inside their schools in defiance of remote learning protocols.
Alex Forgue, who is a physics instructor with the Chicago Military Academy at Bronzeville, replied on a post in the CTU Members Only Facebook Group, vowing to report members who went to work.
Lightfoot countered Wednesday that the CTU was holding students “hostage” in refusing to let teachers go to work with claims of fears of the spread of coronavirus.
A counter-demonstrator holds up a sign as members of the Chicago Teachers Union and their supporters participate in a car caravan around City Hall to protest against in-person learning in Chicago public schools on January 10, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
“I will not allow [the Chicago Teachers Union] to take our children hostage,” Lightfoot stated during a news conference, according to Fox.
“I will not allow them to compromise the future of this generation of CPS students. That is not going to happen.”
District officials, who call the union action “an illegal stoppage” had kept buildings open for student meal pickup and said that schools with enough staff were allowed to open their doors to students.
Members of the Chicago Teachers Union protest in a car caravan at City Hall against in-person learning in Chicago public schools on January 10, 2022. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Some teachers showed up despite union directives; district officials estimated about 16 percent of teachers did so Monday, AP reports.
City officials argued that schools are safe with protocols in place. School leaders have touted a $100 million safety plan, including air purifiers in each classroom.
Roughly 91 percent of staff are vaccinated and masks are required indoors.
AP contributed to this story
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