No deal in Chicago teachers strike; classes out for 9th day [View all]
CHICAGO Chicago's mayor on Tuesday accused leaders of the city's powerful teachers union of using its "political agenda" to hold up a contract agreement to end a strike that has barred students from classrooms for nine days.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the Chicago Teachers Union's bargaining team demanded "at the eleventh hour" that she support state legislation to elect rather than appoint the district's school board, as well as changes to state law governing what the union can strike over.
"Are we really keeping our kids out of class unless I agree to support the CTU's full political agenda wholesale?" Lightfoot said at a news conference. "If the CTU wants a deal, there's a deal to be had right now on the table."
The heated accusations follow several days of contentious closed-door talks seeking to settle the strike, which has kept more than 300,000 students out of classrooms since Oct. 17 in the nation's third-largest school district.
Read more: https://www.phillytrib.com/news/across_america/no-deal-in-chicago-teachers-strike-classes-out-for-th/article_d543653f-ad08-5c0a-8eef-992e9f5be876.html