CTU to CPS: Create a safer school environment for employees, students

CTU to CPS: Make schools safer for employees, students
Chicago Teachers Union president Jesse Sharkey. Photo credit WBBM/ Zoom

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The Chicago Teachers Union said it is ready and willing to meet Chicago Public Schools leaders at the bargaining table after an arbitrator ruled on Friday that school buildings were unsafe during the pandemic.

The union argued that working conditions were not safe for the CPS staffers who have to do their work in school buildings instead of remotely.

The union contends that face masks and social distancing are not enough to slow the spread of an airborne virus in school buildings. The union said most CPS buildings were built before 1950 with outdated ventilation systems.

The district said in a statement that the arbitrator did not specify the ways in which the buildings were unsafe.

CTU president Jesse Sharkey said during a remote news conference Monday morning that the decision was a win for the union, and that they are ready to bargain for new working conditions.

"Right now there is an arbitrator's order, which is final and binding, on CPS to bargain these conditions,” Sharkey said.

Sharkey said members could threaten to strike if the district refused to go back to the bargaining table, but he added that he would rather it not come to that.

"It's going to be a long pandemic if every single time there's a reasonable suggestion coming from the union or from the court, it's the only way we're going to get CPS to listen to us or to listen to reason is to threaten to strike," he said.

CPS started the academic year with remote learning. Over a thousand workers that include school clerks, school clerk assistants and technology coordinators have been coming into school buildings to work full-time since Aug. 31.

“These buildings are definitely not safe for us to be in working. Some schools, it’s a fact, some schools are deplorable. They have no PPE,” said Sabrina Woods, a school clerk for 26 years who spoke during the virtual press conference.

Woods said that most of the school clerks who “are being forced to come into these building” are women of color who, as the head of their household, are being forced to choose between their health and feeding their family.

The district has considered bringing students back into school buildings for some form of in-person instruction during the second quarter of the academic year.

Featured Image Photo Credit: WBBM/ Zoom