Classes at Chicago schools canceled for 2nd day over teachers union impasse

Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Chicago Public School canceled classes again Thursday after the district and teachers union failed to agree on whether to allow remote learning during a spike in COVID-19 cases.

The Chicago Teachers Union voted Tuesday to refuse to return to in-person classes after the winter break, taking issue with the CPS' COVID-19 guidelines and safety measures. Thursday marked the second day of canceled classes due to the vote.

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said it's unclear whether classes will resume Friday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. He said he was disappointed in the CTU's vote and that the district had considered pausing in-person learning only at schools with high COVID-19 rates.

"We still believe that the right approach is not a district-wide hammer that does a brush across the entire system calling the schools unsafe -- there's no evidence to show that -- and instead making sure we address individual issues at schools," Martinez said.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot called the CTU vote against in-person learning an "unlawful, unilateral strike."

"If you care about our students, if you care about our families, as we do, we will not relent," she said. "Enough is enough. We are standing firm and we are going to fight to get our kids back to in-person learning. Period. Full stop.

"We owe that to our children who suffered learning loss."

The CTU said Wednesday that many teachers reported being locked out of their email and CPS accounts that would have allowed them to teach remotely.

CTU President Jesse Sharkey said the union's negotiators would continue to talk with CPS representatives.

"We are going to talk to them as much as we need to, around the clock when necessary," he said, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The CTU is seeking for all staff members to have a negative COVID-19 test result in order to be allowed to return to school buildings and for weekly in-school testing that's mandatory for unvaccinated staff members and optional for students.

Chicago reported a seven-day moving average of nearly 5,000 cases Saturday, the most recent day for which data are available. That's a 21% increase over the prior week. Hospitalizations were up 14%, while deaths were down 15%, according to the city's COVID-19 dashboard.

Cases of COVID-19 have seen a marked increase in recent weeks with the spread of the more contagious -- but possibly less severe -- Omicron variant of the disease.