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CPS Asks Teachers To Go To Arbitration To Avoid Strike

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool on Wednesday urged the teacher's union to agree to resolve their contract disputes though arbitration and avoid a strike.

In a letter to union chief Karen Lewis, Claypool said CPS is "at a loss as to how a strike would solve or even advance a solution to the considerable challenges that CPS faces."

Claypool, who noted that Chicago's firefighters and police officers have used binding arbitration for decades, asked Lewis for a response by April 27.

The action comes on the same day that teachers' union representatives were traveling to Springfield to lobby state lawmakers for more money to aid the financially struggling district.

"The best course is for CPS and CTU to join together in Springfield for long-term sustainable funding for our schools," Claypool wrote.

Last weekend, the union rejected a report by a neutral fact finder that recommended teachers accept the current contract offer, beginning a 30-day countdown to a possible strike.

The CTU says the fact finder recommended an old contract that was unanimously rejected by the union's bargaining team earlier this year.

Claypool Letter to Lewis

By rejecting the fact finder's report, the union can now go on strike as early as May 16 which is about a month before the school year ends.

"The clock has started," Lewis said. "CPS has created this fiscal mess and refuses to go over hundreds of millions of dollars in existing revenue that is already out there. Our whacked-out governor isn't helping. Hand-in-hand, both will wind up hurting our members and our students in the long-run. We have no choice to prepare ourselves for a possible strike."

The current offer provides teachers with an 8.75 percent salary increase over the four-year life on the contract. It also requires teachers to pay seven percent of their salary into their pensions.

In a statement the union called the letter "a publicity stunt."

"CTU does not have binding interest arbitration because we choose to negotiate and write our own contracts---plus police and fire, as he referenced, cannot strike.

"We can't say we're interested in this until we know the rules of arbitration and under what terms. Binding arbitration puts our fate in the hand of a single person rather than our nearly 30,000 rank and file members."

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