Mayor asks Chicago Teachers Union to 'partner' with city, avoid strike

CHICAGO - Mayor Lightfoot Monday pleaded for leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union to make what she called a "real counter-offer" as the clock ticks down toward a potential strike that could shut down schools next week.

With union leaders boasting a strike would transform the labor movement across Chicago and beyond, Mayor Lightfoot put details online of the astounding pay raise she's offering.

“The average teacher is actually going to have a 24 percent increase in her salary over the five year term of this contract, which means she is going to be making nearly $100,000!

Union President Jesse Sharkey made no mention of that in an email response, but complained of low wages for non-professionals and of work outside class.

“CPS’ entire system is predicated on unpaid labor, and they want to increase that unpaid labor. Teachers already spend upwards of 20 hours a week doing the work of educating at their kitchen tables." 

Sharkey also proposed live-streaming negotiations. Veterans of such contract talks said that would force each side to talk only to the cameras and kill any chance of good-faith bargaining.

“As I’ve said, will clear my decks,” Mayor Lightfoot said. “Be at the table every single day. But we need to get a deal done for our kids.”

The mayor's plea comes just one week before the earliest possible strike date by the teachers union, next Monday, Oct. 7.