CHICAGO — The Chicago Teachers Union agreed Tuesday to end its strike in the nation’s third-largest school system, allowing 350,000 children to return to classes on Wednesday after seven days with no school.
The announcement came after 800 union delegates from schools across the city met for two hours behind closed doors to debate a proposed contract. The tentative deal, drafted by negotiators for the teachers and the city, hit snags earlier in the week as union delegates complained that they did not have sufficient time to digest it and, in some cases, did not like what it said. On Tuesday, the delegates voted by what two delegates described as an overwhelming majority to lift the strike, though the contract still requires ratification in a vote by the union’s 26,000 members.
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And of course, the teachers' union did it "for the children."
$76,000 for barely working 180 not-full-time days a year? And need to hire extra teachers to help with an additional hour a day (still, barely a full-time day)? As to teachers' claims that they work on their personal time - well, in this 24/7 world, most workers, professional and otherwise, are practically on-call, skipping lunches/breaks, working late and weekends, and working fully 12 months a year (maybe with a week or two off). And while a strike gets attention now that classes are back in session - why not work out the issues during the close to 3 months off during the summer when children's lives will not bo so disrupted? This IS all about the kids, right?