Stacy Davis Gates, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, speaks during a rally in Federal Plaza in the Loop to call for the Chicago Board of Education to vote to end a $33 million contract between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Police Department, Wednesday afternoon, June 24, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin /Sun-Times
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file
Contract negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools kicked off Monday with hopes of a more amicable and transparent process than recent history.
CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said the union was happy to see “more people in the first session than we have seen in previous times with direct understanding and clarity about how school works.
“Today is our first step in showing our work to the city of Chicago about why the Chicago Public Schools is the place that deserves our investment, our love and our attention and our commitment to coalition work,” Davis Gates said.
The CTU proposed “open bargaining,” which would allow the public to watch negotiations either online or in person. CPS under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot rejected that idea.
A CPS spokesperson said Monday that officials are reviewing the CTU’s proposals to livestream a “limited number of sessions” and for creating a sign-up list for in-person attendees.
“The district looks forward to productive conversations with our union partners,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
CTU deputy general counsel Thad Goodchild said it was clear Monday that “CPS is used to bargaining being a certain sort of way.
“We’re committed to that changing,” he said. “We’re going to work at it. But it’s going to take time to bring folks who are used to doing things a certain way along.”
The CTU contract — negotiated during an 11-day strike in 2019 — expires June 30.
The union hasn’t publicly shared copies of its 700 proposals but said they would be “transformative” for the district and the union’s most “ambitious” ever. Davis Gates said earlier this month that ally Mayor Brandon Johnson’s presence in City Hall does not mean the CTU wil take a strike off the table.