Chicago teachers union strike: Mayor Lori Lightfoot ‘would be very surprised’ if deal struck in time for Monda – Chicago Tribune

The union, which has been fighting to gain more influence over the direction of the school system, has rejected the Board of Education’s offer of 16% base-pay raises over five years. The union instead wants 15% over three years. But even as state law mostly restricts teachers to striking over pay and compensation issues, union leaders have pushed back on those restrictions, highlighting demands related to staffing, class sizes and school preparation time. They want CPS to agree to their demands on non-teacher staff and they want those changes written into their contract, which would make the state law moot, and hand more control back to the union after more than two decades of Board of Education, and therefore mayoral, control.