City Colleges of Chicago teachers union prepares to set strike date for faculty and staff who are still without a contract agreement

The union for City Colleges of Chicago faculty and professional staff are poised to set a strike date this week after authorizing a walkout earlier this month.

The Cook County College Teachers Union plans to notify members Monday evening announcing that strike date internally ahead of a rally planned for Thursday, union president Tony Johnston said.

Setting a strike date would be the next step toward a potential faculty and staff walkout as contract negotiations remain stalled.

The union authorized a strike by a vote of more than 1,000 members on Oct. 6. with 92% of them voting in favor. The CCCTU has two negotiating teams representing professional staff and faculty. Contracts for both groups expired in July.

“The authorization was a democratic vote of our members giving authorization to the negotiating team to call a strike if they feel as though it’s necessary,” Johnston said.

Negotiations have progressed on some issues, with discussions on annual salary increases heading “in the right direction,” Johnston said. “Since our strike authorization vote, there has been better negotiations at the table.”

Asked about contingency plans in case of a strike, a City Colleges spokesperson said only that the community college network “is committed to negotiating in good faith with each of our professionals and faculty unions to finalize their respective contracts.”

One ongoing sticking point is the current remote work policy proposal, which Johnston said is not expansive enough and doesn’t include a grievance process for employees if portions of the contract are violated.

“It’s very rare when there’s an agreement that a certain portion of the contract wouldn’t be covered by the grievance procedure,” Johnston said.

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A violation of a telework policy by the employer could include the administration demanding remote employees return to in-person work, Johnston said. The union is advocating for the inclusion of this grievance procedure to ensure members have a degree of stability in their work arrangements and a formal outlet for addressing any changes.

Johnston said the administration has adopted a “take it all or leave it” approach to negotiations.

Johnston said the union submitted an intent-to-strike notice to the colleges and to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board about two weeks ago and is now mediation. Already, the union had one mediation session for the faculty, and another will occur Monday with professional staff.

There are seven colleges and five satellite sites in the City Colleges of Chicago system, with 3,800 faculty and staff and 54,000 students.

In addition to Thursday’s strike rally, union members plan informational pickets at the colleges Wednesday to speak with students and community members about their demands, which include wraparound services for students to help with housing instability and child care.

mellis@chicagotribune.com