1:27 p.m. ET, October 17, 2019
Chicago mayor says school will remain cancelled throughout the duration of the strike
From CNN's Amanda Watts
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot addressed the media on Thursday morning, while Chicago Public School teachers began their strike.
When asked if school was cancelled tomorrow as it was on Thursday, Lightfoot said, “Yeah, until we get notification from CTU [Chicago Teachers Union] that they are intending to come back to the classroom, school is cancelled for the duration.”
The Mayor said they need the union to come back to the table and bargain in good faith, face-to-face.
“I think we have put on the table a structure both on compensation, around class sizes, around staffing and another of other supports that have the outline and framework for a deal, but we can’t bargain by ourselves,” Lightfoot said.
“This isn’t about politics for me. This is about making sure that we are protecting our children, that we’re providing a safe and nurturing environment for them. And that we get a deal done that both respects the teachers and the support staff, honors our fiduciary responsibility to the tax payers and then puts in place a good solid foundation for our children on which to continue to grow and thrive."
“We need to get our kids back in school. Every day we are out, that hurts our children, that hurts our children. So we need to make sure that we do everything possible to create an environment where we can get back to the table, where we can get a deal done, so that our kids can be back in our normal rhythm and cadence,” she said.
Lightfoot said if there is a willingness, they could get a deal done today. When asked why the union continues to say they aren’t close to a deal, Lightfoot said, “we obviously have differences of opinions, which is why there’s a strike.”