62 Comments - Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:17 am: “Last, best, and final” Yeah, that’s all in the eyes of the beholder. Rauner tried that, thinking he would either break AFSCME, or force them into a strike vote. Reality, it comes down to if the party offering last and best were ever negotiating in good faith. - Montrose - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:18 am: I am pretty sure there’s lots of laughter at CTU when the mayor issues ultimatums like that. - The Most Anonymous - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:24 am: I thought yesterday was the final day, based on her own words at her press conference yesterday. - Magic Dragon - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:24 am: This shouldn’t even be a negotiation. These teachers are under contract. They need to get back in the classroom. - JP Altgeld - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:25 am: “Today’s offer will be the last, best and final offer until tomorrow’s.” - Ava - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:26 am: This tortured process has to have parents besides themselves and exploring suburban options for their children. - Back to the Future - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:28 am: Generally I just default to supporting teachers, but maybe we should all rethink the problems in the CPS system. Perhaps our Governor should be more active and offer to mediate. This would be a good time to show some leadership. - Today's offer - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:28 am: Make the offer public. If it’s a reasonable one, public pressure might help to complete the deal. - A Guy - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:29 am: Depends on which side of the hill the Calvary (parents and voters) are on. CTU is on the verge of seriously overplaying their hand. The calvary will be standing behind the Mayor now. There is a national movement for teachers to get back in the classroom. Suspect the President will be publicly saying so very soon. CTU is always an outlier. But they’re making national news with their ridiculous interpretive dance video. Now our national neighbors can witness that it’s never “about the kids” with CTU. Never has been. - Dusty Roads - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:33 am: -Perhaps our Governor should be more active- I’m not a fan of JB but in fairness to him this isn’t his problem. Mayor Lightfoot , CTU, and Chicago parents have to deal with this situation. - Pundent - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:34 am: Mayor Lightfoot’s final offer is like Mike Lindell’s promise of the imminent release of information proving election fraud (which I believe is supposed to happen today). I’m not going to hold my breath in either case. - SWIL_Voter - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:35 am: Proud of the teachers, so happy they have such strong unions. Only wish other essential workers had such collective strength. Very tough to see people openly call for them to be marched to their death even if they are in a pretty loud minority - Oswego Willy - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:38 am: The Mayor has no leverage at this point. She retreated, threatened, retreated, threatened so often, where are her allies during all this? The reason the mayor is seemingly alone, it’s obvious Lightfoot will cave when it comes time to stand. Lightfoot lacks allies in the city council, folks are bailing on her in her Comms crew, and Lightfoot thinks a national media blitz will help in the Wards. What leverage does the mayor have? Hurting teachers by denying remote as well is also Lightfoot *hurting* students, so not unlike Rauner’s thinking that hurting the vulnerable and framing that *own* hurting is “someone” else is at play. Arguably, the worst suited person/personality you can have as a mayor in a situation like this, then add a severe lacking of political acumen and competent staff… competent staff and crew that can be persuasive. Lightfoot has gone too far on the plank. Retreat will be forthcoming. - DuPage Saint - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:40 am: I thought President Biden indicated his support for the teacher’s union specifically in Chicago. - de Gaulle - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:48 am: She has done the impossible - managed to have everyone annoyed. At least Rahm and RMD just offended the CTU and kept the business folks and others on their sides. Lori has lost them, too, and in record time. - JP Altgeld - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:49 am: Pains me deeply to say this but I agree with OW bigly on this one. - Roman - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:50 am: Public ultimatums rarely work in any negotiation, particularly in collective bargaining. Deals get cut when each side figures out how the other side can save face. Lightfoot either doesn’t know how to get a deal, or doesn’t want one. The possibility exists that she’s will to sacrifice her own political standing just to experience the pleasure of breaking the union. - City Zen - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:50 am: It could be worse. San Francisco just sued its own school district. - Amalia - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:51 am: and now they are on to City Library employees…… - Precinct Captain - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 10:03 am: - Oswego Willy - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 9:38 am: ==The Mayor has no leverage at this point.== ==She retreated, threatened, retreated, threatened so often, where are her allies during all this?== They’re too busy stepping down to do important Chicago City Council committee work. You know the Chicago City Council, famous for its attention to policy detail and robust stream of white papers? Practically a think tank. - Steve Polite - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 10:09 am: Magic Dragon, Whether you agree with CTU’s position or not, Health and Safety is a contractual issue and is a legal reason to strike if the two sides cannot agree. - CG - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 10:16 am: “last best and final” is a labor term that is used before impasse is declared in a collective bargaining instance. CTU will then have to vote to strike. And maybe they will. But that’s why the mayor is calling it that. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 10:22 am: ===CTU will then have to vote to strike.=== Meh, stringing this out hurts Lightfoot more, slow playing this is to the union’s benefit, and leads to more caving. Not saying it won’t “end” there, but it looks right now that the end of *next* week, maybe, this might get an end… unless Lightfoot caves, yet again. - Pundent - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 10:24 am: =There is a national movement for teachers to get back in the classroom.= I think you missed the word “safely.” The track record of CPS considering the health and welfare of their students and teachers is not the best. Parents know that. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 10:26 am: ===Practically a think tank.=== True. Prolly also thinking, they don’t need the headaches Lightfoot is bringing. - Chris - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 10:28 am: OW: “ Lightfoot has gone too far on the plank. Retreat will be forthcoming.” From my perspective (current CPS parent and not a fan of CTU’s approach), da Mare’s only route of retreat is off the end of the plank. And then sink or swim—bc no one will be there to save her. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 10:30 am: ===… only route of retreat is off the end of the plank. And then sink or swim—bc no one will be there to save her.=== The Rauner playbook until the end(?) - Kyle Hillman - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 10:38 am: ” The calvary will be standing behind the Mayor now.” That’s just not going to happen. Public trust in elected officials is so low, and parents trust the person teaching their kids. It is not even close. - Mad Hatter - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 10:40 am: Know people on here don’ t like him…..but Kass is right on target……Mayor One Term LIghtfoot…… - Anon - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 10:43 am: Last I saw, when offered back to class instruction, 2/3 of the families chose to continue with online learning. Go figure. Given the large numbers of human contact in schools, if teachers are forced to go into classrooms, they should at least have the option to sue for damages in case of severe illness or death from just doing their job. Otherwise, why isn’t every office worker in their office? - JS Mill - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 10:43 am: =Yeah, that’s all in the eyes of the beholder.= Actually, the statement about last, best is part of school code. If they do not come to agreement, the acknowledgement of “last, best” sets in motion a new set of actions. Setting aside the mayor’s lack of clout or standing, invoking “las, best” isn’t a bad move by CPS. =Health and Safety is a contractual issue and is a legal reason to strike= Only if it specifically in the contract as a permissible reason to strike. Illinois collective bargaining rules for schools are not the same as other sectors including other public sectors. The CDC statements and directives directly undercut the health and safety position of CTU. Add to that their teachers going on local news shows talking about how the don’t “feel” safe but acknowledge that science says they are (WGN TV Thursday morning). This isn’t about “feelings” when it gets to a judge, it is about facts. And the facts are not on CTU’s side. Working in a district that has been in person since day 1, I understand their concerns and have empathy for them, but it is long past time for them to begin the transition back to in person school. - rutro - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 11:07 am: I got a call from a lightfoot (I assume) poll a couple days ago, haven’t seen any released data, I’m guessing the results where a pox on both houses (mayor & ctu). - Steve Polite - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 11:11 am: Thank you JS Mill, I stand corrected. The CDC’s updated guidance recommends a return to in person eduction safely. https://tinyurl.com/1iucjfve “These updated Considerations for Schools are intended to aid school administrators as they consider how to protect the health, safety, and wellbeing of students, teachers, staff, their families, and communities: Promoting behaviors that reduce COVID-19’s spread Maintaining healthy environments Maintaining healthy operations Preparing for when someone gets sick” Respectfully, Steve Polite - Wonk - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 11:19 am: Steve Polite, is rent abatement a health and safety and contractual issue? Maybe if CTU stopped making demands in other areas of government, we could get closer to a compromise on the core issues. I get that whether kids have a stable home situation affects school performance, but then where does CTU’s claimed scope ever stop? They were elected by and speak for their members, not the students and families of the school community or the community at large. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 11:25 am: === not the students and families of the school community or the community at large.=== A teachers’ union advocating for students and the students’ environments is outside what teachers do? Use the Google, there is constantly teachers helping students, in their communities… for individuals with challenges, all types of challenges, including homelessness. I don’t think you grasp what teachers see as party of the trade. - TinyDancer(FKASue) - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 11:28 am: =Mayor One Term LIghtfoot= That was obvious from day one. I remember watching her rebuke City Council members in her inaugural address and thinking, wow, if she was a classroom teacher, she just lost them. 5,6,7,8…….How long is it gonna take for her to lose total control? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8slPTqEVxc - Ed Equity - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 11:31 am: This final offer will likely be met by a cooling off period, followed by an arctic vortex cancelling school, followed by more negotiations, followed by a cooling off period, followed by summer, followed by herd immunity, followed by an increase in pay for their hard work over the past year. - Jocko - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 11:32 am: Yet another unforced error by Lightfoot. For a Michigan/U of C grad, AUSA, and attorney for Mayer Brown…her public relations/people skills appear to be severely lacking. - Really - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 11:37 am: Last, best and final, huh? Put some teeth behind it. When they turn this down start revoking their Google Rights and cut off their pay and benefits. Until you do that they will just continue to stretch this out, probably until the summer when they need to take vacation and then they will see you to talk again in the fall. I feel so badly for the parents that are stuck in the city and have to deal with CPS and CTU. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 11:40 am: === When they turn this down start revoking their Google Rights and cut off their pay and benefits.=== Ask yourself… if they haven’t done all that already, you think they can do all that? I know… I know, you told me… you don’t like unions… but here’s the sitch… posturing, real, not real, the issue here is the safety and well being (to the union) of its members, which is why unions exists… along with collective bargaining so rights can’t be arbitrarily taken. - South Side Sam - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 11:40 am: Glad to see we’re putting the children’s education first. Seems to be absent from the “negotiations”…. - Rich Miller - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 11:46 am: ===we’re putting the children’s education first=== I think the CTU would say it’s kinda difficult to educate kids when you’re dead. Either way, this is a labor negotiation, not a school board meeting. - Dotnonymous - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 11:46 am: Some people just like to rumble…mostly former prosecutors. - DuPage - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 11:52 am: Easy for Lightfoot to dismiss the teachers concerns about Covid-19. She got her vaccine shot on TV. A lot of suburban districts are getting their teachers vaccinated. Lightfoot should do the same. - Joe Bidenopolous - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 12:16 pm: If you look at the results from the back to school surveys of parents, the only groups where a majority are sending kids back are more affluent white families and the parents of special needs kids. Low-income Black and Brown families are overwhelmingly choosing to keep their kids home irrespective of what CPS decides. TL;DR - MLL is kowtowing to rich white parents who want to be relieved of their parenting/safety responsibilities over families of color and teachers. Note: white children are 15% of total CPS enrollment. Bonus: Yesterday, MLL blasted CTU and questioned how they had time to hold press conferences. She did this during her own press conference. I’ll admit I voted for her, and to date, it’s the vote I most regret taking in my life. She’s an unmitigated disaster. - Ogden - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 12:27 pm: “U of C grad, AUSA, and attorney for Mayer Brown…her public relations/people skills appear to be severely lacking.” Actually, this is all quite consistent in my experience. - low level - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 12:35 pm: Again, I don’t understand this rush to reopen. We are learning about new strains of COVID emerging from different parts of the world. I assume these aren’t covered in the vaccine. Up until now the administration has been very cautious- too much for some people. But when it comes to our kids, no, sorry, gotta reopen right away. Makes no sense to me. - Steve Polite - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 12:35 pm: Wonk, You misunderstand my statements. I am an active union member, but I am not a member of CTU, nor am I in Education. I don’t know CTU’s demands or offers; therefore, I am not speaking about those specifically. My only point is that it is common and appropriate for unions to negotiate over health and safety issues important to its members. Respectfully, Steve Polite - Steve Polite - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 12:44 pm: ==cut off their pay and benefits= ==you think they can do all that?== With respect to OW, they actually can do all that, but it’s an Unfair Labor Practice if it violates the contract, and they would end up owing that money to members with interest. Rauner did something similar to AFSCME. Many members received back pay and thousands of dollars in interest after it was settled. All that tactic did was cost taxpayers more money. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 12:45 pm: === they actually can do all that, but it’s an Unfair Labor Practice if it violates the contract, and they would end up owing that money to members with interest.=== So more losing for the sake of losing. Probably why so much retreating. - Three Dimensional Checkers - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:23 pm: I think JS Mill is right that the last, best, and final offer is legal buzzword language to move to the next stage of trying to resolve the dispute. - low level - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:25 pm: == She’s an unmitigated disaster.== Yes. And not just on education issues, either. I honestly can’t think of a single accomplishment at mid term soon. - Thomas Paine - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:33 pm: === Easy for Lightfoot to dismiss the teachers concerns about Covid-19. She got her vaccine shot on TV. === That’s the ballgame. The mayor claims its safe for the teachers to return. To school without a shot, but the mayor got the shot. The mayor says they will get the vaccine to teachers soon enough, but Capitolfax points out (and Mary Ann Ahern retweets) that the city has plenty of vaccine on hand to give every teacher their first shot right now. The mayor says “Trust us” but CPS has a long history of covering up the truth, from test scores and janitor contracts to child abuse and more. The mayor’s recent record includes a cover up of police raids on the home of an innocent social worker. The mayor says the kids come first, but she’s willing to cut off remote learning if teachers won’t kowtow to her, and she refuses to improve remote learning even though it’s the overall preferred learning plan for Black and Latinx families right now. Meanwhile Crains reports business leaders are looking for a replacement, making her a lame duck with no one in her corner. - JP Altgeld - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:49 pm: === I honestly can’t think of a single accomplishment at mid term soon. === This is patently false. No mayor has had as robust a meme game since perhaps Joseph Medill. - JP Altgeld - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:49 pm: === I honestly can’t think of a single accomplishment at mid term soon. === This is patently false. No mayor has had as robust of a meme game since perhaps Joseph Medill. - Roman - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:52 pm: The city has had control of somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 vaccinations each of the last few weeks. The mayor could have lined up teachers by the order they return to work, or their age, and started mass vaccination weeks ago. There would be little public objection. CTU would have no legitimate argument right now if she did that. She chose not to because — well, I don’t know why. Political malpractice. - ChicagoBars - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 2:23 pm: I definitely don’t know who has the cavalry behind them city wide in this fight between MLL & CTU. But if the bluffs get called and remote learning gets locked out on Monday by CPS I have a hunch who a lot of parents are going to blame, and it’s the ones with the keys. - Manchester - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 2:34 pm: I negotiated public educational labor contracts for 20+ years, Last best and final offers are rarely any of the three. It boxes you into a corner and seldom has the desired affect. It’s the mark of a frustrated and unseasoned negotiator. - Edgewater Ed - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 2:55 pm: MLL’s reopening plan was bound to fail from the jump. She didn’t engage the players involved to help create the plan so there was no buy-in. Besides this being bad policy, it’s even worse politics. She is burning bridges with 42 alderman and 24 state senators and reps from Chicago. She isn’t going to be able to move her agenda forward. She is going to have serious challenges from the business community and progressives with hardy any base in 2023. She will come out of this weak and nothing to show for her trouble. It’s ridiculous. - walker - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 3:35 pm: Trying to judge any labor negotiation based on what the parties feed to the public indirect as pressure tactics, is often futile. - low level - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 3:49 pm: == This is patently false. No mayor has had as robust a meme game since perhaps Joseph Medill.==. JP Atgeld Point well taken! Lol - DuPage - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 4:16 pm: Biden should send an extra shipment of vaccine specifically for Chicago teachers and school employees. Pritzker could send some National Guard to give the shots. They need to get the job done. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.