CHICAGO (CBS) — The Chicago Teachers Union on Thursday accused Chicago Public Schools officials of deliberately delaying contract negotiations.
CPS denied doing any such thing and insisted it was good faith negotiation.
“So our negotiating sessions earlier this week were promising. We felt a sense of urgency and commitment from both sides to try to reach a deal,” said CTU member Ziedre Foster. “Today we experienced a significant change.”
Thursday’s negotiating meeting was the first since a judge issued CPS Chief Executive Officer Pedro Martinez’s temporary restraining order Earlier this week, members of the Chicago Board of Education were barred from participating in the negotiations.
Martinez’s attorney, William Quinlan, told a Cook County judge in court Tuesday three school board members attended the contract negotiations between CPS and CTU on Monday, and intimidated CPS negotiators. This was just days after the board voted to fire Martinez.
Martinez said school board members did not inform his team that they would be at the negotiating table before showing up.
Quinlan said school board members “hijacked” the negotiations. Martinez told the judge that his team was told by CTU negotiators that “we hold all the cards” and that his team felt intimidated by school board members at Monday’s talks, claiming that board members did not huddle with the CPS negotiating team , but with the union.
CTU officials denied that school board members huddled with their negotiating team Monday.
Negotiations will resume on Friday morning.
