November 1, 2019

Andrew Campbell 

Chicago teachers have ended their 11-day strike after reaching a tentative settlement on October 31. Since the Chicago teachers' strike in 2012, there has been a national teachers' movement across the US as teachers’ strikes are more common in protesting and expressing their labor disputes. In 2016, Chicago teachers walked out 1 day to protest against job contracts and unstable finances in the school system.

Teachers in Arizona, Oklahoma, and West Virginia watched closely on the 2012 Chicago teachers’ strike and carried out their own strikes accordingly. The theme of Chicago teachers’ strike in 2012 mainly aimed at demanding pay raises and succeeded to cancel a program of emphasizing solely on student test scores. Earlier in January, 30,000 teachers in Los Angeles went on strike for 6 days. Later in June, teachers in the Union City of California had a 3-week strike for bargaining their contract deals.

Like the earlier strikes, Chicago teachers called for more money to ease overcrowded classrooms and to hire more support staff. In addition, the school district’s 25,000 teachers demanded a wage increase. According to the tentative agreement, the deal includes pay raises, a 5-year contract, classroom size caps, and funding for additional 209 social counselors and 250 nurses.

Photo:Webshot.