CHICAGO (CBS) — It may be a new year, but there is still no agreement on a new labor contract between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union.
The finger-pointing has continued in the first few days of 2025, with both sides blaming the other for the stall in negotiations.
Despite the school district being on winter break, the CPS and CTU negotiating teams have met eight of the last 10 days but still have not been able to reach a deal.
CTU He accused CPS CEO Pedro Martinez of delaying the talkswhile Martinez and his team insisted that the union continues to return to points that both sides already agreed on.
Both sides have been negotiating since April. CTU’s contract with CPS expired in June, and union president Stacy Davis Gates said talks were halted by one person.
“We are frustrated because Pedro has every opportunity to say yes,” she said.
Martinez responded, saying his negotiating team was active in all discussions.
“Our CPS team carefully considered each of the 700 proposals presented to us by CTU,” he said.
There are several bottlenecks, including the union’s demand for additional staff at schools. CPS officials have said the union wanted nearly 14,000 additional employees, which would cost $5.5 billion over the total life of the four-year contract.
“If we overextend ourselves today, tomorrow it will be our children and our staff who will pay the price,” Martinez said.
CTU has also proposed increasing the scheduling period for teachers from 60 minutes to 90 minutes per day, but the district has said it would not agree to reducing instruction time.
“The only way an educator can get prep time is if the student gets something in class that is not the teacher’s core instruction, which means the student gets an art lesson, or the student gets a gym class, or the student gets a music lesson ” said Davis Gates.
CTU states that this is common in other districts and should be the norm in CPS.
As for negotiations, they will likely come face to face when a new, partially elected school board is sworn in on Jan. 15.
“They come in and say, ‘What? I’m not going to undo all the work done here. For what purpose?’ I mean, we’re very close. They may be the ones who give the shoulder across the goal line,” said Gery Chico, who served as president of the Chicago Board of Education from 1995 to 2001 and helped negotiate two contracts with CTU.
Chico said the ongoing contract talks have already taken much longer than he is used to.
Whatever the sticking points, Chico said it’s about money. Teacher demands will come at a cost, and CPS must manage a limited amount of available tax dollars to pay for them.
“What universe do these guys live in to think that taxpayers are going to come up with hundreds and billions of dollars to pay for this contract? The state of Illinois has essentially closed the door on any more money from them. Maybe there’s a little bit,” Chico said.
The current school board voted last month to fire Martinez without causebut his contract allows him to stay until the end of the school year he remains responsible for the CPS negotiating team. He has said he rejected Mayor Brandon Johnson’s demand to resign last September, after rejecting the mayor’s demand to take out a $300 million high-interest loan to sign a new contract to be paid with CTU, together with some pension costs.
While it is unclear what impact a new school board could have on contract talks once new members take office on Jan. 15, CPS officials said they have reached several verbal tentative agreements with the union but cannot get anything in writing to move forward . same points.
CTU leaders claimed CPS has a $1 billion surplus, and the union wants it used to pay for the contract. Martinez said there is no such thing.
Jermont Terry
