Contract stalemate continues for Chicago Public Schools and Chicago Teachers Union as new year begins
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It might be a new year, but there's still no deal on a new labor contract between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union.
The finger-pointing has continued in the first few days of 2025, with each side blaming the other for holding up negotiations.
Despite the school district being on winter break, CPS and CTU bargaining teams have met for 8 of the past 10 days, and still can't finalize a deal.
CTU accused CPS chief executive officer Pedro Martinez of stalling talks, while Martinez and his team insisted the union keeps going back to items both sides already agreed on.
The two sides have been negotiating since April. CTU's contract with CPS expired in June, and union president Stacy Davis Gates said talks have been stalled by one person.
"We're frustrated because Pedro has every opportunity to say yes," she said.
Martinez countered, saying his negotiations team has been active in all discussions.
"Our CPS team has carefully considered each of the 700 proposals presented to us by CTU," he said.
There are multiple sticking points, including the union's demand for additional staffing at schools. CPS officials have said the union wanted nearly 14,000 additional staffers, which would cost $5.5 billion through the total length of the four-year contract.
"If we overextend ourselves today, it will be our children and staff to pay the price tomorrow," Martinez said.
CTU also has proposed extending teachers' planning period from 60 minutes to 90 minutes per day, but the district has said it will not agree to reduce instructional time.
"The only way that an educator can get prep time is if the student is getting something in instruction that isn't the teacher's core instruction, which means the student gets an art class, or the student gets a P.E. class, or the student gets a music class," Davis Gates said.
CTU argues this is common in other districts, and should be the norm in CPS.
As for the negotiations, they will likely run into when a new partially-elected school board is sworn in on Jan. 15.
"They're going to come in and say, 'What? I'm not undoing all the work that's been done here. For what purpose?' I mean, we're really close. They may be the ones that give it the shoulder over the goal line," said Gery Chico, who was the Chicago Board of Education president from 1995 through 2001, and helped negotiate two contracts with CTU.
Chico said the ongoing contract talks already have taken much longer than he's used to.
Whatever the sticking points, Chico said it comes down to money. Teachers' demands will cost, and CPS must manage a limited amount of available tax funds to pay for them.
"What universe are these guys living in to think that the taxpayers are going to come up with hundreds and billions of dollars to pay for this contract? The state of Illinois has basically shut the door on any more money from them. Maybe there's a little bit," Chico said.
The current school board voted last month to fire Martinez without cause, but his contract allows him to stay until the end of the school year, meaning he remains in charge of the CPS negotiating team. He has said he rejected Mayor Brandon Johnson's demand to step down last September after he rebuffed the mayor's demand to take out a $300 million high-interest loan to pay for a new contract with CTU, along with some pension costs.
While it's unclear what impact a new school board could have on contract talks once new members take office on Jan. 15, CPS officials said they have reached several verbal tentative agreements with the union, but they can't get anything in writing to move beyond the same points.
CTU leaders claimed CPS has a $1 billion surplus, and the union wants that used to pay for the contract. Martinez said there's no such thing.
