There have been 11 Chicago teacher strikes since 1969, including a string of long walkouts in the early 1980s over compensation and district cuts.
Here’s a look back at each strike in order of highest number of days of school cancelled as a result.
19 days (1987)
At issue: The first day of school — Sept. 8, 1987 — was canceled for the city’s 430,000 public school students as 99 percent of Chicago’s public school teachers vowed to stay out of their classrooms as long as necessary to win a new contract with salary increases.
The teachers union was seeking a two-year contract with a 10 percent raise the first year and a 5 percent increase the second. The board refused to increase pay and cut salaries by 1.7 percent by trimming the school year by three days and not paying employees for them. Chicago Mayor Harold Washington said his aides reviewed the school board budget and decided there was no money for teachers’ raises. At the time, the average district teacher’s salary was $29,700 (or more than $81,000 in today’s dollars) for 39 weeks of work and two weeks of vacation.
How it was resolved: The record month-long strike ended on Oct. 3, 1987 in a two-year contract with a 4 percent salary increase the first year and another 4 percent raise next year (if money was found to finance the second wage boost). Class size was to be reduced by two students in kindergarten through third grade in 36 overcrowded schools and 100 underachieving schools. The $43.8 million package would be financed by cutting 1,800 positions, the Tribune reported.
Mayor Washington promised the strike — which provoked outrage from parents and students across the city — would bring sweeping reform of Chicago public schools.
15 days (1983)
At issue: More than 420,000 public school students were shut out of classrooms starting on Oct. 3, 1983. Chicago Teachers Union chief Robert Healey accused CPS superintendent Ruth Love of “bamboozling” the board to prolong the strike and discredit the unions.
The school board offered a one-half percent salary raise for teachers and other employees, though CTU held out for more without saying how much. The board had indicated that higher salary increases would be contingent on cutting jobs, which the unions didn’t tolerate.
How it was resolved: In a tentative agreement reached Oct. 23, 1983, the school board offered a 5 percent raise for teachers, which was privately what union members said they would accept throughout the strike. About one-fourth of the teachers, however, would receive their pay over 12 months instead of during the 9 1/2-month school year to make it easier for the Chicago Board of Education to come up with the cash. The total cost of the proposed settlement was $81 million.
12 days (1973)
At issue: More than 550,000 students were affected when the city’s 650 schools were closed on Jan. 10, 1973, due to 25,000 striking teachers.
The previous day, school board members refused to grant any of CTU’s demands for higher salaries (a 2 1/2-percent pay raise) and other monetary items along with reductions in class sizes and in the length of the school year.
How it was resolved: A deal was struck late on Jan. 25, 1972 that included a 2.5-percent pay raise for teachers; reductions from 40 to 39 weeks of school per year (the union sought 38 weeks); and an extension of class size limits to the remaining 150 of 600 schools. The agreement also restored positions of 150 adjustment teachers and 60 assistant principals.
11 days (2019)
At issue: Chicago teachers walked out for 15 days starting Oct. 17, 2019, causing the cancellation of 11 school days and disrupting the lives of 300,000 students. A dizzying number of factors brought Chicago to its latest teachers walkout. But they boiled down to politics, time and money. Despite talk of some progress at the bargaining table, neither side had reached consensus on multiple issues, including pay, staffing and the potential duration of a contract.
How it was resolved: The strike set off a protracted battle of wills that ended after Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago Teachers Union agreed on a $1.5 billion five-year deal that both sides say would transform Chicago Public Schools.
Lightfoot’s initial offer included a 14% pay raise. She then upped it to 16%, leading to criticism that her strong opening salary proposal may have boxed her in. The mayor sought to avoid a strike and to cut through the back-and-forth posturing that often bogs down labor negotiations, but gave herself less room to offer the CTU more money after teachers walked out anyway.
Column: The Chicago teachers strike is over and, fingers crossed, Chicago is better for it
The union’s focus on staffing and class size concerns in the talks also put the mayor in something of a bind. Unable to make big new salary offers, Lightfoot was instead left trying to explain early in the negotiations why she couldn’t — or wouldn’t — include guarantees in the accord on numbers of nurses and social workers in schools or students per classroom.
Then Lightfoot maintained a hard public position against make-up days for the strike, only to bend at the eleventh hour, agreeing to five such days for teachers to partially recoup money they lost during the walkout.
From teachers strike to total shutdown: A timeline of Chicago Public Schools’ very strange year
11 days (1975)
At issue: Chicago Teachers Union members voted in nearly a 9-to-1 margin to strike on Sept. 3, 1975, which was supposed to be the first day of the school year.
Union president Robert M. Healey said the issues were a complete contract for the 1975-76 school year, smaller class sizes, a cost-of-living pay raise and an improved fringe benefit package.
How it was resolved: The Board of Education agreed on Sept. 17, 1975 to a new contract giving CTU a 7.1 percent salary increase, smaller class sizes, improved insurance benefits and restoration of 1,525 teaching positions that had been cut.
The agreement for the 1975-76 school year, in which Mayor Richard J. Daley played a behind-the-scenes role as a mediator, cost $79.6 million. Of that, $68.8 million went to employees represented by the CTU and $10.8 million to others.
10 days (1984)
At issue: For the seventh time in 15 years, CPS students woke up on Dec. 3, 1984 to find their schools shuttered.
CTU president Jacqueline Vaughn said the walkout occurred because the Board of Education failed to meet union demands for a new contract with a salary increase and no cutbacks from the previous year’s pact.
How it was resolved: Schools reopened on Dec. 17, 1984 after a tentative agreement was signed just a week before classes would end for winter break. The one-year contract include a 4.5 percent pay raise; a one-time 2.5 percent bonus; an increase in the minimum annual salary for a teacher with a bachelor degrees but no experience and in the maximum for a teacher with a doctorate and 15 years of experience.
7 days (2012)
At issue: About 25,000 union members went on strike for the first time in 25 years on Sept. 10, 2012 after negotiations were close on teacher compensation but CTU still had serious concerns about the cost of health benefits, the makeup of the teacher evaluation system and job security.
The strike culminated months of heated rhetoric between CTU President Karen Lewis and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his hand-picked school board.
Chicago Teachers Union’s 25,000 members went on strike for the first time in 25 years on Sept. 10, 2012. The strike cancelled seven days of school. (Chicago Tribune)How it was resolved: Teachers returned to their classrooms on Sept. 19, 2012 with double-digit pay raises, but Emanuel said he would not rule out a property tax increase to fund it. Emanuel succeeded in his fight to lengthen the school day, though neither side released the tentative contract. Though an evaluation of the disruption by Tribune reporters indicated teachers gained modest concessions during the strike, and actually earned many of the significant wins before the strike began.
5 days (1980)
At issue: By a 3-to-1 margin, CPS teachers voted to go on strike starting Feb. 4, 1980. The strike continued a work stoppage that began the previous week to protest the fact that school employees had not been paid as part of the district’s financial crisis (though checks to remedy the situation had been issued since then).
How it was resolved: After some 35 people attended a bargaining session called by Mayor Jane Byrne on Feb. 10, 1980, the strike came to an end. Teachers agreed to give up one day of pay instead of two as required by an earlier plan; 504 jobs were restored and occupational training instructors were permitted to work 8 hours a day instead of 6 as required by an earlier plan.
4 days (1971)
At issue: Almost all of the city’s 558 public schools were closed starting on Jan. 12, 1971 due to a teachers’ strike. Minimum starting pay for Chicago school teachers was the second-highest in the nation (behind New York) at the time, according to the Tribune.
How it was resolved: The city’s more than 577,000 students returned to school on Jan. 18, 1971 after CTU members voted 7-to-1 to approve a new, two-year contract for $67 million — $33.8 million more than the Board of Education had in its tentative budget. Though CTU president John E. Desmond blamed low voter turnout on poor weather and the Super Bowl game. The contract gave teachers an 8 percent salary increase the first year and 8 percent more the second.
2 days (1985)
At issue: “This is a strike no one expected,” Tribune education reporter Casey Banas wrote when the strike began on Sept. 3, 1985. “The legislature had pumped more money into the schools. A new superintendent was eager to avoid a strike. The governor had agreed to help modify state law so teachers could have a multiyear contract.”
Supt. Manford Byrd confidently said at a July 9, 1985 budget meeting, “I’m optimistic that we will wrap up talks by Aug. 15.”
CTU President Jacqueline Vaughn said she agreed with that date, but wasn’t presented with salary offers by then. The union asked for a 9 percent pay increase for the 1985-86 school year, but the school board said it could afford only 3.5 percent.
How it was resolved: Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson stepped in to assist with negotiations and announced on Sept. 4, 1985 that the two sides settled.
The two-year pact called for 6 percent raises that year and a possible 3 percent raise the next. The settlement also called for a new school holiday on the first Monday in March — Casimir Pulaski Day — in honor of the Polish-born Revolutionary War hero.
2 days (1969)
At issue: Teachers went on strike May 22, 1969 — for the first time in the city’s history — despite a 14-hour mediation attempt by Mayor Richard J. Daley, but there was a belief the strike would be brief.
How it was resolved: The major provisions of the contract were: 1.) No layoffs of teachers or other personnel in September 1969; 2.) No cutbacks in summer school programs; 3.) No decreases in educational programming; 4.) Implementation of all items agreed to previously; 5.) Certification for full-time basis substitute teachers with three years of satisfactory service; 6.) No agreement on other salary adjustments; and 7.) Salary increases of $100 per month for teachers and 71/2 percent for civil service workers effective in September 1969.
Among the teachers’ demands were better support from the state Board of Education to obtain state funds, as well as smaller class size and no staffing cuts. Read the Tribune’s coverage
Source: Chicago Tribune reporting and archives
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