Members of the Chicago Teachers Union has voted overwhelmingly in favor of a strike, citing a preparedness to go on stike if the mayor and school board opt to bail out the ailing school district at the expense of teachers' benefits.
A total of 88 percent of all teachers, or 96 percent of the 22,678 of the teachers that actually voted, agreed to authorize the strike. This goes well beyond the required 75 percent majority vote that is mandated by state law, according to Reuters.
The Numbers:
No. of Actual Votes: 22,678
No. of Eligible Voters: 24,752
Percentage of Members who Voted: 91.6 %
Percentage of Members who Voted 'Yes': 88%
No. of 'Yes' Votes: 21,782
Percentage of Voting Members who Voted Yes: 96.05%
The decision to strike comes as the school district faces a $1.1 billion structural deficit and thousands of possible teacher layoffs after Christmas. To combat this, the system reportedly wants teachers to return $653 million worth of benefits.
"Do not cut our schools, do not lay off our staff and solve the budget problems on the backs of educators," CTU VP Jesse Sharkey said.
The vote now puts the CTU and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) at odds with one another. A strike can't begin until 105 days after a "fact-finding phase" begins. The CTU has called for that phase to begin immediately, and has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Illinois Educational Relations Board set to meet at the end of January. Based on the IER's decision, a strike could begin as early as May 2016. However, CPS doesn't want to begin that process to begin until mid-Febuary meaning that a strike wouldn't be possible until June 2016, according to ABC's Chicago affiliate WLS-TV.
This development also puts a strain on Mayor Rahm Emanuel who is already facing calls for his resignation following the release of a video showing the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, 17, on a city street last year. He already has a tense relationship with the CTU following a seven-day strike in 2012, and the closure of 50 schools in 2013.
With this in mind, Sharkey notes another strike is something that Emanuel can't politically afford: "Rahm Emanuel really does not need a teacher's strike. He really doesn't, and what we're telling him if he doesn't listen to us, that is what he'll get."
However, Emanuel and CPS officials said the problems the school district faces are due to the state government, which gives Chicago schools 15 percent of state education funding, even though it has 20 percent of Illinois' students.
"So rather than strike, we ask that the Chicago Teachers Union join us to fight for our shared goal of equal education funding from Springfield for Chicago's children," CPS CEO Forrest Claypool said, according to USA Today. "We will continue to negotiate in good faith with the CTU leadership to reach a fair, multi-year agreement that protects teachers, their jobs and ensures our students' success."
Going forward, CTU members are already preparing for the strike with President Karen Lewis advising members to save 25 percent of their pay in advance.
