CHICAGO—Picket lines and protests will likely meet students and parents who show up at Chicago school buildings Friday, as teachers in the nation’s third-largest district launch an unprecedented one-day strike they say is aimed at getting lawmakers to adequately fund education and other programs.
The walkout will close schools for nearly 400,000 students, who will have the option of spending the day at one of the more than 250 “contingency sites” Chicago Public Schools is opening at churches, libraries and school buildings.
It also could foreshadow a longer strike over a new labor contract, which by law can’t occur for several weeks.
The Chicago Teachers Union last went on strike in 2012, shutting down schools for more than a week before reaching an agreement with Mayor Rahm Emanuel. That contract expired in June, and the two sides have been negotiating for more than a year over a new one.
CPS, which faces a $1.1 billion budget deficit and billions more in pension debt, already has halted salary increases, ordered teachers to take three furlough days and imposed other cuts to schools. It reached an agreement earlier this year with union leadership on a proposal that included salary increases. But a larger union bargaining team rejected it, partly because it required employees to contribute more toward their pensions and health insurance.
