Chicago Teachers Union again rejects in-person schooling, prompts citywide school closures



The Chicago Teachers Union voted to reject in-person schooling and once again transition to a remote-only work environment on Tuesday, citing unsafe working conditions amid a surge in COVID-19 cases. The move, which was reportedly the result of a unionwide survey, prompted Chicago Public Schools to cancel classes Wednesday.

In a lengthy Twitter thread posted late Tuesday night, the nation's third-largest teachers' union announced that all of its more than 25,000 rank-and-file members would be logging in remotely to work starting the very next day and would continue to do so until changes ensuring their health and safety were made.

"The results of tonight's citywide electronic ballot are in. Starting tomorrow, all CTU members at CPS schools should be working remotely. The result of tonight's vote was 73% in favor of the remote-work-only job action," the union wrote.

"To be clear: Educators of this city want to be in buildings with their students," the union added. "We believe that classrooms are where our children should be. But as the results tonight show, Mayor [Lori] Lightfoot and her CPS team have yet to provide safety for the overwhelming majority of schools."

The action will end when one of the following conditions is met: The current surge in cases substantially subsides, or the mayor's team at CPS signs an agreement establishing conditions for return that are voted on and approved by the the CTU House of Delegates.
— ChicagoTeachersUnion (@ChicagoTeachersUnion) 1641358495

The union attempted to reassure parents who, along with their children, will undoubtedly face the brunt of the negative implications of the union's decisions.

"To other parents and guardians of this city, we want you to know that when you put your children in our care, we put their well-being and safety first. We fight for your children like they are our own, because when we teach, they are," the union insisted.

It added, "We understand the frustration that is felt by tonight's decision, and assure families that we will continue to work diligently, as we have for the past 21 months [since the pandemic began]."

The union's promises are likely to ring hollow for countless Chicago parents who have seen their children suffer mentally and fall behind academically under remote schooling over the past year and a half.

Forced to cancel classes Wednesday due to the virtual strike, Chicago Public Schools pre-emptively responded by threatening to put teachers who don't show up to work on "no-pay status" until they return.

Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who also warned that teachers who did not show up for in-person work on Wednesday would be put on no-pay status, slammed the decision in a statement, saying, "I have to tell you, it feels like ‘Groundhog Day,’ that we are here again," in reference to last year when the union threatened an illegal strike over similarly supposedly unsafe working conditions.

"There is no basis in the data, the science, or common sense for us to shut an entire system down when we can surgically do this at a school level," Lightfoot added, calling out union leaders for “politicizing the pandemic."

According to the Chicago Tribune, as a part of Tuesday's vote, the Chicago Teachers Union's House of Delegates approved a two-week pause for in-person instruction, until Jan. 18, allowing time for COVID-19 cases to decrease or for an agreement to be made between the city and its public schools that satisfies the union's demands.

Prior to the scheduled return to classes following winter break, the union reportedly demanded that certain safety measures — including large-scale COVID-19 testing, distribution of K95 or similar-quality masks to all students and staff, and established thresholds for a district to shift to remote learning based on citywide positivity rates — be implemented.

"If we had testing, if we had a way to help ensure that people coming into the buildings weren't carrying the Omicron variant, that would be a different matter, but that's not what's going on right now," union president Jesse Sharkey complained to CNN on Tuesday.

But Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez dismissed the union's fearmongering at a recent press briefing, insisting that “there is no evidence that our schools are unsafe."

“The amount of noise that’s out there right now, the amount of misinformation, we have so many people that are afraid, from parents to staff, because of the misinformation,” Martinez said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Martinez reportedly even sent an offer to meet the union halfway on some of its demands before its vote, but the union ultimately rejected it. His offer included a more localized threshold for shutting down in-person learning at specific schools based on student and staff infections — not citywide positivity rates.

Watch: Chicago Teachers Union members perform interpretive dance in protest of teacher return policy



A handful of members of the Chicago Teachers Union have expressed their opposition to the Chicago Public Schools' plan for schools to return to in-classroom teaching by performing an ensemble of interpretive dances.

The union has proudly shared the video for the world to see.

What are the details?

The CTU tweeted out the clip with the message, "Six of our rank-and-file dance teachers come together to use their art form as a voice to express their desire to feel safe amidst CPS' teacher return policy. They stand in solidarity with all educators at risk, because no one should have to choose between life and livelihood."

Six of our rank-and-file dance teachers come together to use their art form as a voice to express their desire to f… https://t.co/Rom6cnrJQW
— ChicagoTeachersUnion (@ChicagoTeachersUnion)1611418410.0

The teachers union has been embroiled in a battle with the school district over whether it is safe to return to classrooms, and voted Monday to defy the city's reopening plan. The union has insisted that teachers want to return to in-person teaching, but claim the school system is not adequately prepared to do so despite spending $100 million toward the effort.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the ongoing disagreement has caused the reopening plan to be delayed this week, and the school system told parents to keep their kids home on Wednesday — when they had been slated to return to the classroom.

Meanwhile, CTU is telling teachers to be prepared to strike. In an email obtained by The Sun-Times, the union wrote Tuesday afternoon:

"So it's come to this. Short of some late-breaking change, *all* CTU members will begin working remotely tomorrow, Wednesday, January 27. And if CPS retaliates against members for exercising their right to a safe workplace, *all* CTU members will stop working on Thursday and set up picket lines at their schools."

Beyond CTU saying that teachers afraid of returning to classes before being vaccinated for COVID-19, the CTU argues that the plan does not make sense because the vast majority of preschool and special education students who were allowed to return to the classroom two weeks ago are still being kept home by their parents.

According to the Sun-Times:

K-8 schools are scheduled to reopen Feb. 1 for an estimated 71,000 students — out of 191,000 children in those grades — who have said they plan to return. It's not clear if all those students will return — only half of the pre-K and special education students who opted in to in-person learning have returned this month, accounting for 19% of the total eligible.

CTU President Jesse Sharkey said in a statement Tuesday, "We are willing to keep negotiating, but CPS has refused to back down from insisting that 80% of educators and support staff person in every elementary school be back in class on February 1 to serve less than 20% of students."

Chicago Teachers Union blasted for 'completely' supporting guillotine protest outside of Jeff Bezos' home



The Chicago Teachers Union was lambasted for a tweet that said it was "completely in support" of protesters who constructed a mock guillotine outside of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezo's home. The bizarre tweet was especially perplexing because the Chicago Teachers Union owns tens of millions in Amazon stock.

On Wednesday, Bezos became the first person in history to have a fortune of $200 billion after Amazon stock continued its historic rise. However, not everyone was impressed with the Amazon founder's net worth. On Thursday, protesters gathered outside his home in Washington, D.C. Some demonstrators were Amazon employees, who were demanding a $30-per-hour minimum wage, according to the Washington Examiner.

The demonstration took a dark turn when protesters constructed a mock guillotine outside of the home of Bezos. The guillotine is a symbol of rebellion, first made infamous when used for public beheadings of nobility and the elite during the bloody French Revolution, including King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette.

The official Twitter account for the Chicago Teachers Union that represents 28,000 members shared a video of the guillotine being constructed outside of Bezos' home with the caption: "We are completely frightened by, completely impressed by and completely in support of wherever this is headed. #Solidarity."

We are completely frightened by, completely impressed by and completely in support of wherever this is headed.… https://t.co/kQY3SkEWmY
— ChicagoTeachersUnion (@ChicagoTeachersUnion)1598564805.0

The morbid tweet was blasted by many on Twitter. BlazeTV's Lauren Chen, who hosts "Pseudo-Intellectual," responded with shock.

@CTULocal1 https://t.co/3F7FzUnb1C
— Lauren Chen (@Lauren Chen)1598672474.0

"As someone left of center living in Chicago area I add my voice to the idea this tweet supporting the direction of using guillotines is stupid, scary, dangerous, & wrong in every possible way," a Twitter user replied. "Whomever posted this for CTU should immediately lose access to their Twitter account."

"If you're in Chicago, get your children out of public schools now," another said.

"As a CTU member and a major critic of global wealth inequality, I am definitely not comfortable with this endorsement by the union," an alleged member of the Chicago Teachers Union stated.

Numerous Twitter accounts referenced Maximilien Robespierre, the architect of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution that killed approximately 17,000; many were executed by guillotines. Robespierre ended up suffering by the same fate and was executed by a guillotine in front of a cheering mob on the Place de la Révolution.

One of the most ironic responses to the Chicago Teachers Union was by Illinois Policy, an independent organization generating public policy solutions aimed at promoting personal freedom and prosperity in Illinois."

"You and your members have profited significantly from Bezos' hard work. As of the 2019 filing, @CTULocal1 pension held 45,754 shares of @amazon," the org said.

The tweet linked to the 2019 annual financial report for the Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund which showed that Chicago teachers financially benefited greatly from having Amazon stock. According to the financial report, the Amazon stock was worth $86,641,147 in 2019.

Chicago Teachers Union officials did not respond to an email from The Center Square about the pension fund's investments or the controversial tweet.

Other teachers' unions have been vocal supporters of far-left politics this summer. North Carolina's Durham Association of Educators that called for sweeping social programs such as universal health care, welfare benefits for illegal immigrants, and a suspension of rents and mortgages. The 35,000-member United Teachers Los Angeles union demanded the defunding of police, the end of charter schools, and financial support of undocumented students and their families.