Strike-ending deal will shape Chicago schools for years

Chicago teachers and more than 300,000 students affected by an 11-day strike returned to classrooms Friday and a tentative agreement that ended the walkout is expected to shape education in the nation's third largest city for the next five years.

The outcome came at a cost, though. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said "nobody wins," noting the hardships that students and their families endured during the walkout.

The outlined agreement shows both sides secured key victories and fell short on other priorities.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot visits a third grade class at Roswell B. Mason Elementary School on Friday Nov. 1, 2019, in Chiago. Chicago teachers and the nation's third-largest school district reached a labor contract deal on Thursday, ending a strike that canceled 11 days of classes for more than 300,000 students. (Ashlee Rezin GarciaChicago Sun-Times via AP)

Experts said those details also will inform teachers' unions and school districts as a national wave of activism by educators is expected to continue.

The union's 25,000 members still must vote on the tentative agreement accepted by their 700 elected delegates late Wednesday night. Union officials haven't discussed a timeline for that process yet.

Students and teachers returned to classrooms Friday.

Students return to class at Roswell B. Mason Elementary School on the South Side after a Chicago Teachers Union strike closed schools for 11 days on Friday Nov. 1, 2019, in Chicago. (Ashlee Rezin GarciaChicago Sun-Times via AP)

'NOBODY WINS'

Lightfoot said Friday that she wants to focus on getting schools back to normal. But some effects on students are irreversible.

Strike-related damage included athletes who were blocked from state playoff competition in volleyball, golf and cross country. The state athletic board blocked cross country athletes' last-ditch appeal Friday, saying teams that didn't compete during regional rounds held during the strike cannot resume their seasons now that classes are back in session.

Second grade students listen during class at Roswell B. Mason Elementary School on the South Side on Friday Nov. 1, 2019, in Chicago. (Ashlee Rezin GarciaChicago Sun-Times via AP)

A handful of high school football teams were spared that fate on Wednesday, when the district began allowing them to practice under the watchful eye of non-union coaches. The decision preserved their ability to play in Saturday's opening playoff round.

Academically, Chicago kids will lose a net six days of school time, and their school year likely will be extended in June. Lightfoot and Sharkey agreed Friday that only five of the 11 strike days will be made up. Teachers will be paid for those five additional days.

Juniors also couldn't take scheduled PSAT tests this week and will have to use April scores on the SAT for National Merit Scholarship consideration.

Students put their coats in their lockers on the first day back to class at Roswell B. Mason Elementary School on the South Side after a Chicago Teachers Union strike closed schools for 11 days on Friday Nov. 1, 2019, in Chicago. (Ashlee Rezin GarciaChicago Sun-Times via AP)

CITY VICTORIES

The length of the teachers' contract has been a point of contention through months of negotiations, and the city emerged with a clear win.

District officials say the five-year time frame will let them make better financial plans and meet aggressive commitments to add social workers and nurses districtwide.

A student puts her coat in her locker on the first day back to class at Roswell B. Mason Elementary School on the South Side after a Chicago Teachers Union strike closed schools for 11 days on Friday Nov. 1, 2019, in Chicago. (Ashlee Rezin GarciaChicago Sun-Times via AP)

Lightfoot said Friday that she's confident the district can afford the terms of the agreement. She said budget staff priced out each element of the contract along the way, including points negotiated during the strike.

"We were not interested in doing something we couldn't afford," she said.

City negotiators also held fast on the length of the school day, refusing the union's demand for a guaranteed 30 minutes of preparation time for elementary teachers before classes begin.

Flanked by Sybil Madison, the city's deputy mayor for education and human services, and Principal Tonya Tolbert, left, and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot visit Roswell B. Mason Elementary School on Friday Nov. 1, 2019, in Chicago. Chicago teachers and the nation's third-largest school district reached a labor contract deal on Thursday, ending a strike that canceled 11 days of classes for more than 300,000 students. (Ashlee Rezin GarciaChicago Sun-Times via AP)

The demand was so important to union members that their bargaining team continued to insist on it in the strike's final days. District officials said compensating teachers for that time would have forced them to cut the length of the school day or school year.

Elementary teachers first lost the preparation time under a 2012 contract negotiated during the last major walkout by their union.

The city also refused union-favored language backing broader affordable housing policies in the city and state legislative changes affecting the district's mayor-appointed school board and state law on the union's bargaining authority.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot visits a fourth grade class at Roswell B. Mason Elementary School on Friday Nov. 1, 2019. Chicago teachers and the nation's third-largest school district reached a labor contract deal on Thursday, ending a strike that canceled 11 days of classes for more than 300,000 students. (Ashlee Rezin GarciaChicago Sun-Times via AP)

UNION VICTORIES

Union leaders touted contract language guaranteeing nurses and social workers will be assigned to each school by the contract's end as a central victory.

The district committed to hiring an additional 250 nurses and 209 more social workers districtwide by 2023 and put $500,000 toward recruiting and training people for those jobs and other roles.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot visits a third grade class at Roswell B. Mason Elementary School on Friday Nov. 1, 2019. Chicago teachers and the nation's third-largest school district reached a labor contract deal on Thursday, ending a strike that canceled 11 days of classes for more than 300,000 students. (Ashlee Rezin GarciaChicago Sun-Times via AP)

The tentative agreement also includes phased-in hiring of additional staff for the city's neediest schools. Principals working with other school employees will decide what type of position is needed at their school, including counselors or librarians.

The strike overcame Lightfoot's early objections to enshrining commitments on staffing in the teachers' contract. Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey said Friday that's an achievement.

"There were a lot of things we wanted in writing," he said. "The district said they weren't going to do it. Well, they did it."

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot visits a third grade class at Roswell B. Mason Elementary School on Friday Nov. 1, 2019. Chicago teachers and the nation's third-largest school district reached a labor contract deal on Thursday, ending a strike that canceled 11 days of classes for more than 300,000 students. (Ashlee Rezin GarciaChicago Sun-Times via AP)

A similar approach has been used by unions in left-leaning cities in recent years to push contract talks beyond bread-and-butter pay and benefits into social justice issues. The Chicago teachers' strike gave national attention to that effort, including support and personal calls or visits from several Democratic presidential candidates this fall.

"I do think this agreement reinforces the symbolic idea that teachers have a critical role to play in ensuring the broader well-being of the students and communities they're serving," said John Rogers, a professor of education at the University of California Los Angeles. "That work emerged from the strike stronger."

The district also agreed to hire staff at schools with high numbers of students who are homeless, dedicated to making sure they are getting services required under federal law.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot visits a second grade class at Roswell B. Mason Elementary School on Friday Nov. 1, 2019. Chicago teachers and the nation's third-largest school district reached a labor contract deal on Thursday, ending a strike that canceled 11 days of classes for more than 300,000 students. (Ashlee Rezin GarciaChicago Sun-Times via AP)

Enshrining those positions in a labor contract is believed to be a national first, said Patricia Nix-Hodes, director of the Law Project at the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

"I think it's visionary," she said. "A significant number of students in Chicago Public Schools are dealing with homelessness and housing instability, and you can't separate that from their education."

COMPROMISE AREAS

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot visits a third grade class at Roswell B. Mason Elementary School on Friday Nov. 1, 2019. Chicago teachers and the nation's third-largest school district reached a labor contract deal on Thursday, ending a strike that canceled 11 days of classes for more than 300,000 students. (Ashlee Rezin GarciaChicago Sun-Times via AP)

The union did not secure lower caps on class size that were among in its initial demands but did get funding toward a committee that investigates violations of existing limits.

The contract says the district will have to provide relief for oversized classes starting next year and commits $35 million toward those efforts, including adding teaching assistants or instructors. The district's poorest schools will be first in line for that funding.

Sharkey and other union officials said getting any commitment on reducing class sizes into the contract is a plus. Lightfoot also initially said those commitments didn't belong in a labor agreement but would be in the district's budget.

Students return to class at Roswell B. Mason Elementary School on the South Side after a Chicago Teachers Union strike closed schools for 11 days, Friday Nov. 1, 2019. (Ashlee Rezin GarciaChicago Sun-Times via AP)

Special education advocates said they were disappointed by the proposal's potential effect on kids with disabilities and special needs, despite the commitments on staffing.

Christine Palmieri, whose 11-year-old son Miles has autism, said she was pleased to see a raise secured for members of a separate union who went on strike alongside teachers. Its members include aides who work directly with special needs students.

Bur Palmieri said she found little in the teachers' contract that will change her son's day-to-day experience.

"I really wish they would have voted no and focused harder on dedicated social workers and case managers," she said.

Teachers will get a 16% raise over the life of the contract — the same amount the city has offered for months. The agreement also keeps teachers' payments toward health insurance flat for several years and limits increases after that.

But they will not be able to make up all 11 days of pay lost to the strike. Lightfoot said from the start that she wouldn't make up those days and stood by that position on Wednesday when union delegates made it a condition of the tentative agreement.

Lightfoot ultimately agreed on Thursday to make up five days, for which teachers will be paid, putting an end to the longest teachers' strike in the city since 1987.

Iran fired missiles at Israel and some Gulf nations while explosions could be heard around Tehran and the central Iranian city of Isfahan on Friday, as the United States prepared to further reinforce its already significant military forces in the Middle East.

As the war that began Feb. 28 was to enter its sixth week, Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait warned about incoming missile fire, although it was unclear if anything was struck. Activists reported strikes around Tehran and the central city of Isfahan but it wasn’t immediately clear what was hit.

Iran’s attacks on Gulf region energy infrastructure and its tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas transits in peacetime, has sent oil prices skyrocketing.

Oil prices surged while Asian financial markets rose moderately during cautious trading. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 11.4% to $111.54 a barrel. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 7.8% to $109.03 per barrel.

U.S. President Donald Trump said U.S. forces will keep hitting Iran “very hard” in the next two or three weeks.

The largest American aircraft carrier in service sailed out of Split, in Croatia and “remains poised for full mission tasking in support of national objectives in any area of operation,” the Navy’s 6th Fleet announced.

It was unclear where it was going. The USS Abraham Lincoln remains in the Arabian Sea and the USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier departed Norfolk on Wednesday to head to the Mideast.

Here is the latest:

Oil prices continued to surge on worries of a prolonged Iran war but the Asian markets that were open Friday rose moderately in cautious trading, while others were closed for the Good Friday holidays.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose 11.4% to $111.54 a barrel. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 7.8% to $109.03 per barrel.

The U.S. only relies on the Persian Gulf for a fraction of the oil it imports, but oil is a commodity and prices are set in a global market.

The situation is very different in Asia. Japan, for example, relies on access to the Strait of Hormuz for much of the nation’s oil import needs and would need to rely on alternative routes. But some analysts say Japan and oher nations are counting on an agreement with Iran to allow transports.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.9% in Friday morning trading to 52,938.62. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.1% to 5,344.41. The Shanghai Composite sank 0.5% to 3,899.57. Trading was closed in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia and India.

Wall Street, where trading is closed Friday, finished its first winning week since the start of the Iran war, although trading started out with a decline driven by a surge in oil prices.

Bangladesh is curtailing office hours and enforcing early closure of malls and shops beginning Friday to handle its energy crisis related to the war.

The country’s cabinet ordered 30% spending cuts for fuel and power at government offices, suspended some staff training and stopped purchases of new vehicles, ships and aircraft. Decorative lighting will not be allowed for celebrations.

Bangladesh, a nation of more than 170 million people, is seeking alternative fuel sources and $2.5 billion in external financing for imports, which account for 95% of its fuel.

Australian Energy Minister Chris Bowen on Friday urged motorists getting away for a long weekend during the Easter holiday to fill up in cities because most of the nation’s fuel shortages are in rural areas.

Among 2,400 gas stations in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, 182 had run out of diesel by Friday.

In Australia’s second-most populous state, Victoria, 76 gas stations were out of diesel. In the remaining states ranked by the most populous first, Queensland had 75 stations without diesel, Western Australia had 37, South Australia had 28 and in Tasmania there were seven.

“For those Australians planning a road trip this weekend, given our shortages are predominantly in rural and regional Australia, it makes sense to fill up in the city to help the country if you can,” Bowen said in Sydney.

The government, which blamed regional shortages on panic buying and distribution problems, is concentrating on delivering fuel to farmers for planting crops.

Palestinian Muslims attend Friday prayers outside Jerusalem's Old City due to restrictions linked to the Iran war, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Tamara and her sister Amal color pictures on the floor as their parents, Sara and Ahmed, who fled their village of Khiyam in southern Lebanon due to Israeli bombardment, sit inside a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A painting lies on the floor of a residential building damaged by recent U.S.-Israeli strikes in Fardis, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Journalists from foreign media based in Tehran document damage from U.S.-Israeli strikes in a residential area of the town of Fardis, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Mohammad Qubaisi, 53, with burn wounds from an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon undergoes surgery by Dr. Mohammed Ziara, left, and his team, at the Sidon Government Hospital in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Israeli security forces and rescue teams inspect a site struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel,Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A newly constructed bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes Thursday is seen in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A newly constructed bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes Thursday is seen in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes on Thursday is seen in the town of Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Israeli security forces and rescue teams inspect a site struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel,Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Members from the Popular Mobilization Forces attend a funeral of fighters who were killed in a U.S. airstrike, in Tal Afar, Nineveh province, north of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

A man with burn wounds from an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon sits on a bed at the Sidon Government Hospital in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A boy who fled with his family following Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon sits inside the van they are using as shelter in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

President Donald Trump arrives from the Blue Room to speak about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)