Chicago Teachers Likely to Strike After CPS Announces Days Without Pay

Chicago Public Schools employees will take three unpaid furlough days, starting with Good Friday on March 25, CPS CEO Forrest Claypool announced on Thursday.

“It’s never easy to furlough employees, but our priority was to preserve instructional time for our students while preserving year-end cash and continuing to chip away at our budget gap," Claypool said in a statement.

About 8,000 employees planned to take Good Friday as a day off.

"After hearing from many principals that they were concerned about staff capacity on Good Friday, which normally falls during Spring Break, we determined the best course of action was a furlough day, combined with non-instructional year-end days," Claypool said.

For school staffers, the other two days will be June 22 and 23. For administrative staff, the two days without pay will be April 21 and 22.

The district faces a $1.1 billion budget deficit. The unpaid days would save $30 million.

Earlier this week, the district announced that 62 employees were laid off, including 17 teachers.

After hearing of the unpaid furlough days, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said the CTU will most likely go on strike. This “only strengthens our resolve to shut down the school district on April 1," she said in a statement.

The teachers do not have a contract agreement and the state is unable and unwilling to bail out the district.