Chicago Teachers Request Support in Strike

Chicago teachers and school staff are on strike for the resources their students need. Now it’s critical that we support them, just the way we supported the walkouts in West Virginia and Oklahoma and the strike in Los Angeles. We want to make sure the entire country sees that we stand in solidarity with the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73. Can you help us make it trend on social media? Click here to tweet your support and help make #PutItInWriting trend. Click here to share your support on Facebook. The Chicago Teachers Union, AFT Local 1, and the Service Employees International Union, Local 73, have been negotiating with Mayor Lori Lightfoot for months. CTU and SEIU want to make sure their contract includes schools that are fully staffed with nurses, librarians, counselors and more, to ensure students are cared for. They want protections for students so they can learn in a safe, welcoming environment, free from fear. They want smaller class sizes, so they can give students more attention and assistance. Chicago educators have done more with less for years: Classrooms are packed with 40 students at a time. Students are coming to school scared for their safety and dealing with stress and trauma. And school support staff are barely scraping by on their paychecks. Mayor Lightfoot ran for office on the promises of educational equity and investment. But without these promises incorporated into the contract, Chicago educators have no guarantee that their students will see those crucial resources. It’s time for Mayor Lightfoot to keep her promises. She needs to know that the entire country is watching. Just like we stood with teachers and school staff who walked out in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina and Los Angeles, we need to show that we have CTU’s back. Click here to make our support for Chicago’s educators trend on Twitter. And click here to share your support on Facebook. In unity, Randi Weingarten American Federation of Teachers President Jesse Sharkey Chicago Teachers Union President