Chicago, IL – Wednesday night, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) convened their House of Delegates to review and vote on the city’s latest proposal to settle the ongoing strike. A majority of the delegates voted YES to end the now 14-day long strike, with the stipulation the the city mayor Lori Lightfoot agree to add make-up days for the now 10 days of  missed classes. With school already cancelled by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) for Thursday, that total will be at least 11 days the teachers and union members are asking the city to add on.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced in a press conference that the strike had ended, and that the school year would be extended by five additional days of instruction due to the strike. This means six days of instruction have been lost for CPS students and teachers.

As teachers march on City Hall to demand make-up days for CPS students, we have been covering the day’s events live in Chicago:

After the Mayor’s press conference we heard from CTU members who said a real “win” for CPS would have included “nurses, social workers in schools every day” more immediately than the 5-year plan, as well as all agreements met for all CPS schools regarding class size, sanctuary, and charter moratorium.

In a press conference directly after the vote, union president Jesse Sharkey said, “Tonight the Chicago Teachers Union house of delegates voted to approve a tentative agreement with the Chicago Public Schools… our union does not have a return-to-work agreement.” He continued, “Our delegates told us…we are not going back to work unless a provision is made for making up the instructional days that have been lost…”

Watch the full press conference entirety here:

Shortly after the union’s statement was broadcast live, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot held her own press conference. In response to the demand for adding instructional days to make up for lost class time, Mayor Lightfoot said, “So where we are right now is, I’m not compensating [teachers] for days they were out on strike.”

Teacher’s union members say the added instructional days are needed because teachers have a number of state-required benchmarks and a curriculum that must be followed. The Chicago Teachers Union asked for their members to meet at City Hall at 10 AM Thursday to demand that Mayor Lightfoot agree to the make-up days.

Keep following Unicorn Riot for updates.

Past coverage on the 2019 CTU strike:

• No Deal Reached as CTU Strike Continues Into Day 12 [October 28, 2019]
• Chicago Teachers and Allies Rally as Strike Continues [October 26, 2019]