STRIKE SCHEDULE: TODAY, Friday, October 25
- 6:30 a.m.: Picket lines go up at all 500+ CPS district-run schools, PLUS Passages Charter strike picket line at 1643 W Bryn Mawr
- 7:30 a.m./SPANISH Language: CTU President Jesse Sharkey, CTU officer Maria Moreno. Lane Tech, 2501 W. Addison.
- 9:00 a.m.: Lane Tech student rally to support striking teachers and staff—on what would have been their homecoming day. Addison and Western.
- 10:30 a.m.: “El Pueblo Unido: Los Padres Luchando”. 2026 S. Blue Island
- 11:00 a.m.: State legislative hearing on special education issues; CTU members, reps to provide testimony. 6th floor, Bilandic Building, 160 N. LaSalle St.
- 2:00 p.m.: Joint SEIU Local 73/CTU Local 1 mass rally, Buckingham Fountain, walking distance to clouted developer Related Midwest’s $700 million TIF subsidized development, ‘The 78’. 301 S. Columbus Dr.
500+ striking CTU members attend civil disobedience training after door-to-door canvassing and family outreach in school neighborhoods.
CHICAGO—CTU picket lines were strong Thursday, with members fanning out to canvass school neighborhoods after lines broke at 10:30 a.m—and buoyed by the conversations they had with parents and community residents. In the afternoon, more than 500 members came to the CTU Center for a packed training on how to use the civil disobedience tactics pioneered by the civil rights movement in our fight for education justice.
At a parallel CTU strike at Passages Charter School, the operator, Asian Human Services, abruptly cancelled a high-rent evening gala benefit party that strikers targeted—an event management said would funnel no funds to the chronically under-resourced school. Management also initiated a swift return to to the bargaining table.
Both the Passages charter strike and the CTU strike of CPS district-run schools are waging similar struggles for living wages, an end to short-staffing of critical front line workers, and adequate resources for students in need, including English language learners and special education students. The charter operator’s self-enrichment at the expense of students at Passages is particularly galling. AHS gets half its revenue from CPS, and pays CEO Craig Maki $250,000/year to run one school—the same amount paid to the CPS CEO to oversee more than 500.
Hundreds of special education teachers gathered at Malcolm X College for bargaining Thursday to talk about special education demands in the CTU contract fight. See below for their rapid response press conference to rebut CPS claims about CTU ‘stalling’ at the bargaining table—and why SPEd contract demands are so critical to protect the rights and needs of the district’s most vulnerable learners. Among the needs the union’s contract proposals seek to address are outrageous workloads and CPS’ routine violation of the federally guaranteed rights of special education students.
Besides special education needs, the CTU and CPS bargaining teams also discussed two critical sticking points at the table: the need to reign in exploding class sizes and chronic under-staffing of school nurses, social workers, librarians and other critical frontline staff. That night, both parties described bargaining as “a good day” of productive discussions. See below and at this link for the livestream of tonight’s 8:30 p.m. press conference on the status of Thursday negotiations. Bargaining continues Friday beginning at 10 a.m. at Malcolm X College, 1900 W. Jackson.
