Charter School Teachers Plan to Strike on May 25th
On May 04, 2017, teachers, their assistants, and paraprofessionals at the Edgewater, Il-based Passages Charter School voted 43-0 to strike. On May 19, 2017, they set the prospective strike date as May 25, 2017, as noted in the Chicago Sun-Times:
Teachers say they are paid “rock-bottom” salaries in the $30,000 to $40,000 range — well below Chicago Public Schools teachers and low even for charter schools — while the current and former CEOs of the stand-alone school earned a combined $540,000 in the year ending June 30, 2016. Union members believe their salaries are low because of administration’s spending on itself — tax records show $281,000 alone on “other compensation” for the retired CEO — and overhead expenses and because those leaders do no fundraising.
As the Sun-Times notes, if Passages teachers follow through with plans to strike, they will be the first charter school faculty to do so.
The union that represents Passages Charter School employees is ChiACTS Local 4343, which represents professionals at 12 other Chicago charter schools (Passages is not the list, but news of the Passages strike date can be found on this ChiACTS Local 4343 web page).
Passages Charter Schools is operated by the Chicago-based nonprofit, Asian Human Services, Inc. (AHS).
The Sun-Times article notes that meanwhile, according to the Passages school website message to parents, negotiations continue. (Note that the letter below represents the official school stance– that of AHS– not that of the teachers and other school personnel who are represented by the union in the AHS negotiation):
May 19, 2017Dear Parents/Guardians and Students:As you may be aware, AHS has been in contract negotiations with the Union that represents the teachers and teacher assistants at Passages CharterCharter School Teachers Plan to Strike on May 25th | deutsch29: