Not All CPS Teachers Taking Part In April 1 Walkout
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The teacher strike against Chicago Public Schools is four days away, but, not all teachers plan to participate.
WBBM's Nancy Harty spoke with one union member who plans to go to his classroom instead.
Michael DeRoss says he doesn't think the one-day strike is morally or legally right.
"The walk out is not going to serve a purpose," DeRoss says. "You walk out for one day, we're going to accomplish nothing."
Podcast
So the political science teacher plans to go to his classroom at Lane Tech on Friday. He also wants to see how many teachers voted in their schools for the strike.
Chicago Teachers Union vice president Jesse Sharkey says it was even higher than the 80 percent of delegates voted in favor and he discourages teachers from crossing picket lines.
"We think that it's extremely important to take into consideration where your co-workers are at and not do something for your personal gain that hurts your co-workers," Sharkey says.
To that, DeRoss says, "They can do what they think they need to do I'll do what I think I need to do."
Teachers are expected to picket at Chicago State and Northeastern University to protest budget cuts before a rally in the Loop. DeRoss takes issue with how the one-day strike has grown to include other groups and causes.
"I object to this whole idea of this great day of action where we're throwing in with a number of other concerns that are totally unrelated to our jobs in the school," he says.
Sharkey says the walkout is a protest of a lack of funding and a state budget, which affects a lot of different interests.
"We're more powerful by bringing all the different groups that are affected by that lack of a budget to the table," Sharkey said.
DeRoss says he's not worried about being kicked out of the union for crossing a picket line.
In the 2012 strike, Sharkey says only 19 people were reported as crossing the picket line.
"We think that it's going to be a tiny minority of people who are in that situation," Sharkey says. "The union's constitution provides for them to be removed from membership."
