Chicago teachers break off contract talks

CHICAGO — The head of the Chicago Teachers Union said Thursday that negotiations with school system officials have collapsed, just days before the contract for nation's third-largest school district is set to expire.

CTU President Karen Lewis suggested in comments to reporters that it is unlikely the impasse will be resolved before the contract expires Tuesday. The breakdown in negotiations was somewhat unexpected because Lewis had expressed optimism earlier in the week that the teachers and Chicago Public Schools officials were close to reaching terms on a new one-year contract.

"Chicago Public Schools refuses to budge on our contract proposals that will have no cost impact on the district," Lewis said. "Initially, we thought we might be close to a deal, but today we have found out that their bargaining rhetoric is as empty as their bank accounts."

Lewis said that the Chicago school officials offered a contract that included "threats to terminate 3,000 educators; threats to increase our class sizes; threats to eliminate our pension pick up; and, threats to enforce another $200 million worth of cuts."

Union officials also said they proposed making changes to the teachers' evaluation system.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a statement called on teachers to come back to the bargaining table, while scoffing at the union. The two sides went into the negotiations with the school system facing a $1.1 billion budget deficit.

"After years of our academic gains, now is not the time to shortchange our children by eliminating evaluations for tens of thousands of employees or lowering teachers' performance standards," Emanuel said.

Soon after Emanuel put out his statement the teacher's union fired back that the mayor was losing his cool and attacking the union.

"The teachers union made a proposal to address an inconsistency in the teacher evaluation system whereby educators with 'proficient' observations could never-the-less be given a 'developing' rating and therefore moved to the front of the layoff line," said CTU vice president Jesse Sharkey. "It is simply untrue that we proposed eliminating evaluations for tens of thousands of employees."

It's not unusual for negotiations to run beyond contract deadlines, and the new school year does not start until after Labor Day.

Emanuel, who was re-elected in April, battled with the union during his first term. The teachers went strike for seven days in 2012, the first teacher worker stoppage the school had seen in 25 years.

The mayor also tussled with the union and some parents over his decision to close dozens of schools with low enrollment. Most of the schools were in predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods.

Lewis had pondered making a run against Emanuel, but ultimately decided against it after being diagnosed with cancer last October.