Chicago teachers reach contract deal for the first time in more than a decade without a strike

CHICAGO (AP) — For the first time in over a decade, Chicago’s public school teachers have a new contract without a strike or threat of a walkout. The four-year agreement includes pay hikes, hiring more teachers and class size limits.

While negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union and the district didn’t escalate this time, there was unprecedented turmoil surrounding the unusual yearlong talks. The drama included the school superintendent’s firing, the entire board resigning and historic elections that tested the union’s power.

Now, Chicago faces uncertainty with Trump administration education cuts and looming questions about how the nation’s fourth-largest school district will pay for the contract.

The turmoil

While all parties are celebrating the agreement now, there’s been no shortage of turbulence.

Perhaps the main reason negotiations didn’t devolve into a strike, as was the case in 2019 and 2012, was union ally Mayor Brandon Johnson. A former teacher and CTU organizer, the union helped elect him in 2023.

He spent months trying to oust Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez, an appointee of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, in a public spat.

“All of that chaos and turmoil there clearly dragged down the bargaining and probably shut it down for a fair amount of time,” said Robert Bruno, a University of Illinois professor of labor and employment relations.

Johnson wanted a $300 million loan to cover the new contract and a pension payment, which Martinez and the board rejected as fiscally irresponsible. District officials and good government groups argue that borrowing would incur high interest rates, but Johnson has pushed back, saying rates are “relatively” low. In October, the board resigned in protest.

The next month, the city held its first school elections. The transitional board — a mix of union-backed candidates, charter school supporters and independents — includes mayoral appointees until it’s fully elected in 2027.

In December, the board moved to fire Martinez, though he’ll remain until June. At one point, Martinez accused new members of meeting privately with the union and won a judge’s restraining order.

The talks

The union started contract talks last year with more than 700 requests, a record for the almost 30,000-member union.

Union leaders say their goal is always equality in the segregated city. Roughly 70% of the 325,000 students in the district are low-income and more than 80% are Black or Latino.

But district officials said those lofty requests would have cost over $10 billion. The district’s annual budget is roughly $10 billion.

The new agreement’s price tag is about $1.5 billion.

“We stayed true to our values,” Martinez said after the deal was announced. “We succeeded in keeping the best interest of our students always at the center."

Both sides touted transparency. For the first time, some bargaining sessions were publicly livestreamed.

It was also the first time in nearly three decades the union was allowed to bargain on issues like class size. In 1995, a Republican-led Illinois legislature passed a law limiting collective bargaining rights largely to pay and benefits. Democratic leaders changed that in 2021.

CTU President Stacy Davis Gates celebrated the contract as a win that protects students, particularly those who are vulnerable under Donald Trump’s presidency.

“It’s big, it’s complex and it is certainly a step in the right direction,” she said.

Johnson also took a victory lap, trumpeting his union ties.

“When I was running for office, they said it would be a liability,” he told reporters recently. “But it sounds like to me that no other mayor could have brought Chicago Public Schools, the Board of Education, the mayor’s office and the CTU together to the table to make sure that our children get exactly what they deserve, which is a fully funded, well-rounded education.”

The deal

Under the deal, teachers will get 4% retroactive raises as the contract expired last year. Then they’ll get 4% or 5% raises each year after.

Starting next year, the median teacher pay will be $98,000. By the contract’s end in 2028, the average teacher will earn around $110,000, according to the district.

The district, which employs roughly 7,000 teachers, will hire 800 more, and nearly 100 additional librarians. Teachers will get an extra 10 minutes of daily prep time, for 70 minutes total.

Also, class sizes will be limited by grade level. For instance, kindergarten will have the smallest and be capped at 25 students.

Union leaders announced Monday that 97% of members who voted approved the deal. Davis Gates called it “overwhelmingly historic levels” of support for a contract that built on previous years' work, including strikes.

The future

Experts say what happened in Chicago could give other unions momentum. Los Angeles teachers, who are currently negotiating, noted CTU in a recent newsletter.

“Organizing is how we resist political agendas to dismantle our public schools and public services. And we can Win Our Future in Los Angeles, just like our union siblings in Chicago,” the United Teachers Los Angeles newsletter read.

Still, serious funding questions remain.

The district has a roughly $500 million annual deficit and a pending $175 million pension reimbursement to the city. The district is also about to enter contract negotiations with the principals’ union.

Martinez said the first year of the contract is covered, but there’s uncertainty after that.

Where the two sides agree is that the talks took too long.

As Trump took office, union organizers said there was more gravity to their work, even as both sides in the Democratic stronghold are aligned on issues including immigrant rights.

“We had a sense of urgency, we had a sense of responsibility,” Davis Gates said. “The district shared the responsibility, but not the urgency.”

School officials accused the union of taking their time.

“We should have had this contract months ago,” Martinez said.