After Last Week's One-Day Strike, What's Next For CPS, Teachers?
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Negotiations are back on this week between the Chicago Public Schools and the teachers union.
Talks resume after last week's massive strike by teachers and other supporters shut down city streets, but what now?
CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker takes a look at what's next and what it all means.
Sarah Chambers is a leader in the Chicago Teachers Union and says the one-day strike was a "great success."
"I think Rauner and Rahm got the clear message," she says. "They know that we're fighting for progressive revenue."
Chambers says the union is going to continue to bargain and send members down to Springfield.
While union leaders label the strike a success, CPS followed its public criticism with a legal complaint to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board. It not only asks the board to stop future strikes but seeks "compensation for the cost to taxpayers of this one."
For the first time CPS says those expenses amount to millions of dollars when you take into consideration the money CPS paid to safe havens like churches to open their doors on Friday. Park districts hired extra staff, and CPS administrators dispatched to local schools lost time and money by being in classrooms instead of their district offices.
"We wanna use that money to fight for our students, to fight for our schools, so by robbing CTU they're also robbing our fight for our students," Chambers says.
So what now? Both sides are waiting for the results of a fact finder. That's a third party that will recommend an agreement that hopefully satisfies both parties.
The report from the fact finder is due April 16, then both sides have 30 days to review it.
If teachers don't like it, sometime after May 16, both sides agree they have the right to strike.
