Chicago Schools to Close as Teachers Launch One-Day Strike

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 ...
Chicago Schools to Close as Teachers Launch One-Day Strike
In this Wednesday, March 30, 2016 photo, Chicago Public School teachers Tammie Vinson, left, and Katie Sciarine, right, both of Oscar DePriest School, load signs in their vehicles in preparation for Friday's one-day teachers strike in Chicago. Chicago Teachers Union staff passed out picket signs and flyers to teachers at CTU headquarters. The teachers union and other community groups and unions are calling for more state funding for schools and social services. Phil Velasquez /Chicago Tribune via AP
|Updated:

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.

In this Wednesday, March 30, 2016 photo, seventh-grade teacher Katherine Gallingly, of Portage Park Elementary School, center, and her daughter, Caitlin, 7, assist with signs at the Chicago Teachers Union headquarters in Chicago. (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune via AP)
In this Wednesday, March 30, 2016 photo, seventh-grade teacher Katherine Gallingly, of Portage Park Elementary School, center, and her daughter, Caitlin, 7, assist with signs at the Chicago Teachers Union headquarters in Chicago. Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune via AP