CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO/AP) -- Chicago teachers and the nation's third-largest school district reached a labor contract deal on Thursday, ending a strike that canceled 11 days of classes for more than 300,000 students.
Mayor Lightfoot announced Thursday afternoon that an agreement has been made with CTU on make-up days. Chicago Public School students will be back in class Friday, Nov. 1.
This was the city's first significant walkout by educators since 2012. The union's 25,000 members went on strike Oct. 17, holding marches and rallies across the city.
Chicago Teachers Union delegates voted late Wednesday to approve a tentative deal that includes pay raises over five years, but they initially refused to end the strike unless the mayor added school days to cover the lost time.
Mayor Lightfoot said after long and hard negotiations, the CTU and the city have agreed on five make-up days to make up for the time lost during the strike. She said it was a very hard negotiation, but in the interest of getting the children back to school, she has agreed to make-up days, when before she said she would not.
The school district said classes will resume Friday.
Throughout the strike, Chicago Public Schools kept schools open, promising parents that their kids would have a safe place to go and receive meals. City parks, libraries and community groups also opened their doors to kids whose parents didn't want to leave them home alone but were uncomfortable using schools being picketed by educators.
Teachers said the strike was based on a "social justice" agenda and aimed to increase resources, including nurses and social workers for students, and reduce class sizes, which teachers say currently exceed 30 or 40 students in some schools. The union also demanded a 15% raise for teachers over three years.
Lightfoot said a strike was unnecessary and dubbed the city's offer of a 16% raise for teachers over a five-year contract and other commitments on educators' priorities "historic."
The Chicago strike was another test of efforts by teachers' unions to use contract talks typically focused on salaries and benefits and force sweeping conversations about broader problems that affect schools in large, politically left-leaning cities, including affordable housing, added protections for immigrants and the size of classes.
The agreement that the 700 members of the union's House of Delegates approved on Wednesday was not immediately released but Sharkey said some of teachers' wins could "transform" schools in the district.
Broad outlines include a 16% raise for teachers during the five-year contract, a new committee to investigate and enforce classroom sizes that surpass limits in the agreement and funding to add social workers and nurses to the city's schools.
Lightfoot said at the start of the strike that she would not restore any lost days and stuck to that position late Wednesday in response to the union's demands. But she and Sharkey met privately at City Hall before Lightfoot emerged from her office on Thursday afternoon to announce the strike would end.
"There is a win for Chicago and the Chicago Public Schools," said CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates, on Thursday after the announcement. "Look our school communities will have a nurse, a social worker five days a week in each school. We will lower class size and have limits. Students who need homeless services will have a coordinator. Students who require sanctuary in our school communities receive it. These are particularly substantial wins for our city and our students.
"It is unfortunate that last night the Mayor said that she was not going to provide days back. It is unfortunate that the Mayor said yesterday that she did not start negotiating with the Chicago Teachers Union until we went on strike. And so today should come at no surprise that she has taken out her anger on our members and only provided five days back."
One reporter asked her, "Why is that not a compromise? Why is that not a win for both?
"It's not necessarily a compromise or a win for both," David Gates said. "First off, a win is the nurses and social workers in our school communities every day. A win is class size. A win is sanctuary...But let me tell you what that is - in the history of return to work agreements, you are never docked this many days...we were pushed up against a wall. Our members want to return to work. They want to make sure that their students get their instructional days. We were pushed up against the wall. We fought hard for 10 days, we fought very hard for 10 days. And we got real gains and that is what we should be celebrating, instead of talking about how petty this is."
Another question was asked of the CTU - why wouldn't you stand with the Mayor today? She said she invited you to join her. Why didn't you stand with her?
"I think this has been an intense last two weeks," CTU President Jesse Sharkey said. "But it's not about me or the Mayor. This is about the members of the Chicago Teachers Union, it's about 20,000 teachers and thousands of education support workers and clinicians. Frankly, our members are still out there on the picket lines today. And they don't need to see me smiling with the Mayor when in fact, what they need to see is that we have a tentative agreement, we now have a return to work agreement. I am glad people get to return to work. Frankly, it has been hard on teachers to be out this long and it has been hard on parents to be out this long. It's been hard on our students. So I just didn't feel like doing a celebration lap with the Mayor right now. That is not what the members need to be looking at. That's not what people in the city need to be seeing."
Lightfoot said she tried to keep her focus on students during the strike.
"I think about all those young people whose lives have been dramatically affected," Lightfoot said. "I think about the seniors. This is going to be the primary memory of their high school experience and I want to ... repair the damage that's been done."
The walkout served as one of Lightfoot's first major hurdles after taking office this year. The former federal prosecutor campaigned on a progressive platform, including school reform, and the union accused her of failing to follow through on campaign promises.
Chicago teachers were joined by thousands of school staff, including security guards and teachers' assistants who belong to a unit of the Service Employees International Union. That union reached a tentative agreement with the district on Sunday, but its leaders vowed to remain on the picket lines until the teachers reached their own deal.
The strike also spread from the picket line to the playing field, as some high school athletes found themselves shut out of competitions. One school, Solorio Academy, missed a chance to win its second state soccer championship in three years because the tournaments began during the strike.