Chicago Teachers Union officials filed a grievance with Chicago Public Schools alleging that the district is shorting some educators’ wages.
In early December, CTU member Alex Rodriguez, a social studies teacher at LaSalle Language Academy, said he heard from several colleagues that they felt their pay was “off.” Comparing salaries from the previous year, educators found that their “payment amount was incorrect to the amounts listed in [their] bargaining contract,” Rodriguez said at a Tuesday press conference.
Having raised the issue with the district in early December, Rodriguez said the issue still has yet to be resolved. It’s hard to trust that CEO Martinez is committed to settling a “fair contract” for the union when members “can’t even trust them not to short [their] check,” Rodriguez said.
“As an early career educator and father, every dollar counts as my family and I budget for our mortgage, groceries and student loans,” said Rodriguez, a social studies teacher at LaSalle Language Academy in Lincoln Park. “We dedicate so much to our schools, and we should be able to depend on our employer, at minimum, to pay us our correct wages.”
The district recently received the grievance and will be looking into the concerns raised, a CPS spokeswoman said in a statement. Meanwhile, she said the union and the district continue to meet daily.
“The District…will investigate the concerns raised to determine if there is any basis for the allegations involving some CTU employees before committing to a District-wide audit. If any corrections are necessary, we will make them, as always.”
The union told reporters they believe they’re close to settling a contract. Their goal was to have a deal in place before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on Jan. 20. However, any adjustment to the district’s budget would require a 2/3 vote of the full membership of the board and publication 15 days prior to approval, per board rules.
Having made “great progress in December,” CTU attorney Latoyia Kimbrough said both parties were willing to make compromises to come to an agreement. However, in recent weeks, she said that progress has stalled.
“We haven’t seen any progress where the financial points are concerned since Christmas,” Kimbrough said. “Without seeing those, we’re not going to be able to settle. We’ve made several concessions [and] we’ve told the board we’re willing to work with them but we haven’t seen anything as far as finances since Christmas. We’re just completely stalled there.”
On the financial side, CTU has proposed the district’s salary schedule keep pace with its urban counterparts, as they said that it currently stagnates for experienced teachers later on in their careers. Consequently, teachers are disincentivized from remaining in the district for the entirety of their careers, according to Thad Goodchild, the union’s deputy general gounsel. CTU’s proposal addressing the salary schedule was made months ago, Goodchild added, but the district has yet to respond.
The financial sticking points in the negotiations include staff salaries and hiring.
At a CPS press conference a day earlier, district officials emphasized the need to protect existing staff positions and said they proposed 4% annual raises for four years. District officials said this raise would be more than the union received in its 2019 contract when the district’s financial situation was considerably stronger, officials said.
Other issues have to be ironed out before both parties come to an agreement.
The union is negotiating to address teacher evaluations, which they stated are “discriminatory and harmful,” as well as excessive standardized testing, which they believe “deprive students the joy of learning and [their] members of teaching,” CTU Vice President Jackson Potter said. “These proposals would cost the district nothing.”
It’s not just the financials that are stalled,” Potter said. “It’s their goodwill and willingness to consider what will be really incredible improvements, things that would greatly assist educators in doing this incredible but difficult work every day and improve the student experience.”
“The CTU has proposals that would address all of these problems that would come at zero cost to the school district, and CPS has refused to consider them for almost 10 months now,” Thad Goodchild, CTU’s Deputy General Counsel, added.
At Tuesday’s press conference, union officials said one of their cost-neutral proposals is the need for what they called “a better elementary school day” which includes 20 minutes at the beginning of the day for students to have breakfast and additional play and an extra 10 minutes for lunch and recess, giving teachers more preparation time and providing a “more robust, well-rounded enrichment programming for students,” Goodchild said.
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