Chicago Teachers Union Pres. Karen Lewis hints at possibility of teachers strike

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The reported handshake deal to extend the Chicago Teachers Union contract for a year - to make time for the district to get its fiscal act together - has fallen apart.

Now CTU leaders say it could mean another teachers strike this winter.

"Withdrawing this one-year contract is simply wrong. It resets the clock," said Karen Lewis, CTU president.

Lewis said she and CTU members were stunned by the letter, which suddenly withdrew CPS from its own proposal for a one-year contract. In the plan, over 30,000 teachers would accept a pay freeze for one year.

"If Mr. Claypool and the mayor are telling the city's public school educators to go on strike, they should just come out and say it," Lewis said.

Lewis also said if CEO Forrest Claypool persisted in an effort to make teachers contribute seven percent more of their paychecks to fund their retirements, the offense to the CTU would be "strikeworthy."

"It is a pay cut. Seven percent is huge," Lewis said.

Earlier this week on ABC7, Claypool blamed teacher pensions for most of the district's gigantic deficit.

"That's why we're in a fiscal crisis, that's why we have a $1.1 billion deficit and we have to fix that," Claypool said.

On the CTU strike threat, a CPS spokeswoman did not deny that the district wanted seven percent more from teacher paychecks:

"We will continue to negotiate in good faith at the bargaining table to reach an agreement on a broader and longer contract..."

"We can take a strike vote at any time. People forget about that. There's no set time to take a strike vote," Lewis said.

But a CTU attorney explained that state law requires mediation and a cooling off period; that would guarantee CPS would open on-time. But there's no assurance the schools would remain open the full academic year.

"Whether they'll be a job action and when that comes will be up to a vote of the members and House of Delegates. But the statutory process will take through until the winter, yes," said Robert Bloch, CTU attorney.

While the idea of a one-year contract is no longer on the table, the two sides are scheduled to resume negotiations next Thursday.

These negotiations began nine months ago in November 2014. They are now back to square one.