Chicago Teachers Threatened a Strike. Hours Later, Chicago Schools Went Remote.
The Chicago Teachers Union threatened a strike in response to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s refusal to move city schools to remote learning for the fall. Hours later, the mayor caved. Strikes work — and during a pandemic, they can save lives.
In Chicago, demonstrators participate in a protest outside of City Hall calling for public school classes to be held remotely when school begins in the fall. (Scott Olson / Getty Images)
Strikes work.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) planned to call a strike authorization vote to keep students from returning to schools in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. A few hours later, the city government cancelled a plan to bring students back to schools two days a week and announced that fall classes would instead be held entirely remotely.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot, of course, doesn’t credit the potential strike for the abrupt change in city policy, claiming the decision was about science rather than teachers threatening militant workplace action. But she previously supported a plan that claimed it was safe to bring students back to school buildings two days a week.
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