Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Chicago Teachers Are Locked Out After Voting for Remote Learning, Refusing to Enter Unsafe Classrooms

Amidst a massive coronavirus surge, Chicago public school teachers voted to return to classes remotely following winter break. Instead Mayor Lightfoot and the district cancelled all classes in a clear confrontation with the city’s teachers and threatened to place all teachers who don’t return by Wednesday on “no pay” status.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

January 5, 2022
Facebook Twitter Share
Signs outside of a Chicago public school in support of teachers

On Tuesday evening, 73 percent of Chicago teachers voted to return from winter break with remote learning until schools could be opened safely amidst the Omicron surge. 

Instead, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the district decided to close all Chicago schools, openly seeking confrontation with Chicago’s teachers. Lightfoot also claimed that teachers who don’t go to work on Wednesday will be placed on “no pay” status. This morning, teachers were locked out of their google classrooms and denied the ability to teach remotely.

This comes as Omicron surges around the country and chaotic and unsafe re-openings become the norm. The United States hit over 1 million confirmed Covid-19 cases yesterday — the highest daily record of any country throughout the pandemic. In this context, there is bipartisan consensus to re-open schools, one way or another. 

Chicago teachers really aren’t demanding much. The CTU has called for:

Even without the mass testing protocols demanded by the CTU, on Monday 5,700 CPS students and 1,900 staff or administrators were in quarantine due to Covid.

The district’s counter-proposal would be laughable if it wasn’t so unsafe. They have stated that schools would go remote if 40 percent of its classroom teachers are absent for two consecutive days because of infection AND the school-wide teacher absence rate because of infection is 30 percent or higher with the use of substitutes or internal staff. That means that nearly every classroom will be overcrowded and nearly every teacher will need to do the work of two teachers.

At the elementary school level, online learning will be used if half of its classrooms are missing at least half of their students because they are in quarantine or isolation. At the high school level, online learning will be used if half of the student body is quarantining.

It’s clear that this has nothing to do with student wellness. There is no way for students to learn in those unsafe conditions. And if this was about the students, Lori Lightfoot wouldn’t lock teachers out of their remote classrooms. It has to do with keeping the economy and forcing workers back to work in unsafe conditions and thus, needing children to be taken care of and out of the house. 

CTU leader Jesse Sharkey explained that “The teachers are being put in the unfortunate situation where we’re trying to keep people safe. We’re trying to run school, and we’re not being given the tools to do it.” 

The school district is going to do anything and everything in its power to demonize teachers and pit families against teachers. After all, parents are struggling to juggle work, childcare, and schooling in the midst of a pandemic.  

It’s terrible that kids are being kept out of schools, that they don’t get to learn and play and explore because of a nearly two year long pandemic that has stolen the childhood and teenage years of a generation. But we must be clear: teachers, students and staff deserve safe schools. The school closures are the fault of the district, which refuses to give in to entirely reasonable demands and of the Biden administration, which has been pushing unsafe school reopenings and “back to normal” policy in the midst of a massive covid surge.

Solidarity with Chicago teachers.

Facebook Twitter Share

Tatiana Cozzarelli

Tatiana is a former middle school teacher and current Urban Education PhD student at CUNY.

Labor Movement

Three tables full of food, with signs hung above them. One says "The People's Pantry: FREE FOOD." Banners hung from the tables say "Free CUNY" and "Cop Free School Zone"

CUNY Administration Cracks Down on Student and Worker-Run Food Pantry

Students and workers opened "The People's Pantry" seven weeks ago as part of a broader anti-austerity campaign at CUNY, leading to several direct confrontations with the administration.

Olivia Wood

March 19, 2023

Temple’s Grad Worker Strike Ends with Important Victories 

The last report on the strike from a union teacher at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Jason Koslowski

March 17, 2023

Teachers and Education Workers Set to Strike! Tens of Thousands Rally in Los Angeles 

A three day strike was announced by two education unions at a rally attended by tens of thousands of members. The workers are calling for increased wages, reduced class size, and an end to harassment by their employers.

Julia Wallace

March 17, 2023
A sign drawn on a small whiteboard, in trans pride colors. Text: "CUNY Graduate Center and Professional Schools Workers for Trans Rights" Beneath the text is a chain of 9 smiling stick figures in different colors, all holding hands

CUNY Union Chapter Unanimously Passes Resolution in Support of Trans Rights

The Graduate Center chapter of PSC-CUNY, the faculty, staff, and graduate worker union of the City University of New York, passed a resolution pledging support to all workers fighting the anti-trans bills nationwide.

Olivia Wood

March 12, 2023

MOST RECENT

Despite Threats of Arrest, Refinery Workers in France Refuse to Break Strike

As energy strikes continue, France is faced with a kerosene shortage that’s creating an urgent situation at the country’s airports. With capitalist profits on the line, the government has attempted to force Normandy refinery workers back to work through an anti-strike legal weapon called requisitions. In their first victory, refinery workers forced the police to withdraw in an incredible demonstration of solidarity.

Nathan Erderof

March 24, 2023

“We Need Action Committees Everywhere”: Building the General Strike in France

Workers across France are organizing action committees to build a general strike to take down the Macron government and the Fifth Republic.

Arthur Nicola

March 24, 2023

What’s Behind Xi Jinping’s Visit to Moscow?

Chinese president Xi Jinping has visited Moscow for the first time since the beginning of the Ukraine war, in an effort to strengthen trade relations between the two countries.

Madeleine Freeman

March 23, 2023
Protesters gather during a demonstration on Place de la Concorde in Paris on March 17, 2023, the day after the French government pushed a pensions reform using the article 49.3 of the constitution. - French President's government on March 17, 2023 faced no-confidence motions in parliament and intensified protests after imposing a contentious pension reform without a vote in the lower house. Across France, fresh protests erupted in the latest show of popular opposition to the bill since mid-January.

Battle of the Pensions: Toward a Pre-Revolutionary Moment in France

President Macron's use of article 49.3 to push through an unpopular pension reform bill has opened up an enormous political crisis that has changed the character of the mobilizations against the French government. We are entering a "pre-revolutionary moment" that can change the balance of power between the classes in France.

Juan Chingo

March 21, 2023