Chicago parents, aldermen and state lawmakers urged the city Friday to support a TIF surplus ordinance to help avert a potential teachers strike next week and alleviate school budget cuts.
The Chicago Teachers Union’s governing body approved an October 11 strike date Wednesday, putting the union one step closer toward its second walkout since 2012.
“If we cannot reach an agreement by then, we will withhold our labor,” CTU President Karen Lewis told reporters Wednesday evening after a special meeting of the union’s House of Delegates.
CTU and school district officials have yet to agree on a new labor contract to replace the one that expired in June 2015.
Progress Illinois provides highlights from Wednesday’s Chicago Board of Education meeting, during which the school district’s $5.4 billion budget was approved and TIF surplus supporters spoke out.
Chicago Public Schools officials heard familiar pleas for more school funding during a budget hearing Wednesday night in the South Loop.
CPS convened the 6 p.m. hearing to get public feedback on the district’s proposed $338 million capital budget for 2017. The hearing, held at the National Teachers Academy, was thinly attended and ended an hour early.
“I like the capital plan, but most people came here because they lost teachers at their school, they lost programs at their school,” Martin Ritter with the Chicago Teachers Union told CPS officials.
Chicago aldermen who oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will introduce a resolution at Wednesday’s city council meeting urging the Illinois Congressional Delegation to reject the 12-nation trade agreement.
Alds. Susan Sadlowski Garza (10th), David Moore (17th), Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) and Anthony Napolitano (41st) joined labor allies at City Hall Tuesday afternoon to announce the resolution, which is being proposed ahead of next week’s Democratic National Convention.
“We’re calling on the delegates at the Democratic National Convention to take this off part of their platform agenda so that they can look out for the working class, for the people that they are supposed to represent,” Sadlowski Garza stressed.
The Chicago Teachers Union’s governing body approved an October 11 strike date Wednesday, putting the union one step closer toward its second walkout since 2012. 