Chicago Teachers Union members vote to continue teaching remotely Monday

Light, Alan. (2015). "Chicago Skyline" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Flickr.

AUTHOR
Roger Riddell@K12DiveRoger

PUBLISHEDJan. 24, 2021

Dive Brief:
Members of the Chicago Teachers Union voted this weekend to continue teaching remotely Monday in a move that runs counter to Chicago Public Schools’ reopening plan, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

As a result, the district will delay its plan until Wednesday to allow time to resolve differences without disrupting learning.

The union said if no deal is reached or teachers are barred from remote work, it would “officially” strike, according to the Sun-Times.

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Tensions between the union and district escalated last week, resulting in a union-wide vote on a resolution that passed the organization’s 700-member House of Delegates with 84% approval. The resolution would see members pledge to continue teaching remotely while refusing an in-person return until a written agreement on safe working conditions is reached with the district.

CPS, which has planned to bring back around 70,000 K-8 students on Feb. 1, had previously warned such a walkout would amount to an “illegal strike.” Initial data from the district issued the week of Jan. 11 showed 678 educators didn’t return the first day schools were reopened for pre-K and special education students.

The district had previously taken steps including locking non-returning teachers out of remote learning platforms and threatening to dock pay if they didn’t return.

The Chicago impasse comes as proposals to return to in-person school nationwide are met with mixed feelings from many in school communities.

As detailed in our ongoing tracker of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on K-12, it's widely understood that most students see greater benefit from in-person learning and many are suffering from the lack of both social and academic ties. But as the pandemic persists and vaccination efforts hit bumps in the road, educators — an estimated quarter of whom are at high-risk due to age or comorbidities, or are taking care of someone in a high-risk group — are also concerned about risks to themselves and their families.