CHICAGO: Chicago Teachers Union delegates meet on Sunday to decide whether Mayor Rahm Emanuel has offered enough concessions in a new labor contract to end a week-long strike and resume classes in the nation's third-largest school district.
Union President Karen Lewis will present the new agreement to some 800 union delegates meeting at 3 p.m. local time (4 p.m. EDT/2000 GMT) on Sunday and will ask them to call off the strike of 29,000 teachers, school nurses and other support staff.
An end to the strike that began on Sept. 10 would allow some 350,000 students to go back to school on Monday.
"We believe this is a good contract, however, no contract will solve all of the inequities in our District," Lewis said in a statement posted on the union website late on Saturday.
The union cautioned that suspending the strike was not assured. The delegates could decide to delay a decision while they consult with rank-and-file union members.
Thousands of teachers demonstrated in Chicago on Saturday to underscore their demand for a new contract.
The confrontation between the union and Emanuel has boosted the weakened US labor movement and opened a rift within the US Democratic Party.
Emanuel was quick to scotch speculation on Saturday that he retreated from some demands at the behest of the White House. Emanuel is a former top White House aide to President Barack Obama and a fundraiser for the president's re-election effort.
Democrats are heavily dependent on labor union support, especially in getting out the vote in the Nov. 6 elections.
"There was no pressure, and no pressure would have worked, because they know that the mayor firmly believes that what we are doing to reform and improve our schools is the right thing," Emanuel spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton said.
The strike forced Emanuel to compromise on some of his demands and left him politically bruised, analysts said.
"The unions have shown that they can stand up to Rahm," said Dick Simpson, a former Chicago City Council member and political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"Although Rahm has a lot of bluster and acts like a chief executive who can get things done, he has not been able to get all he wants. This has been his first big test as mayor and he is weaker after it than he was before."
COMPROMISE ON EVALUATIONS
Emanuel compromised on the design of the first update of the evaluation system for Chicago teachers in 40 years, details of the agreement released by the union show. He agreed to phase in the new plan over several years and reduced the weighting of standardized test results in reviewing teachers.
The Chicago dispute has shone a bright light on a fierce national debate over how to reform failing inner-city schools. The union believes that more money and resources should be given to neighborhood public schools to help them improve.
Emanuel and a legion of financiers and philanthropists believe that failing schools should be closed and reopened with new staff and principals to give the students the best chance of improving academically.
In Chicago, more than 80 neighborhood schools have been closed in the last decade as the enrollment has declined by about 20 percent.
At the same time, 96 so-called charter schools have been opened. Charters are controversial because they are publicly funded but non-union and not subject to some public school rules and regulations. Their record of improving student academic performance is mixed, studies show.
Lewis and the union argue that charters are undermining public education.
"We work very hard," said Rhonda McLeod, a special education teacher at a neighborhood school on Chicago's South Side and one of the delegates who will vote whether to end the strike on Sunday. "To say a teacher comes in and phones it in is the biggest lie I ever heard."
The agreement the union will vote on would give the teachers a 3 percent raise this year and 2 percent in each of the next two years. If the agreement is extended for an optional fourth year, teachers get a 3 percent increase.
The deal could put Emanuel in a difficult position as Chicago Public Schools face a financial crisis. The district has drained all its financial reserves to cover an expected budget deficit over the next year and has levied the maximum property tax allowed by law.
Teachers also fear that once the strike is called off, Emanuel will announce the closing of scores of schools to save money to pay for the agreement with teachers and to make room for opening more charters.
Teachers won a concession from Emanuel that half of all teachers hired by the district must be union teachers laid off from school closings.
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