West Chicago High School Teachers Authorize Potential Strike
(WBBM Newsradio) -- Teachers at West Chicago High School have voted to authorize a strike. But don't look for picket lines anytime soon.
A total of 128 teachers voted Friday, and all of them voted to authorize the strike.
But union president Brad Larson stressed he's not filing a 10-day strike notice with the state and has no intention of doing so before the next scheduled negotiating session Feb. 7.
The main issue is pay.
"We know the Board of Education has the funds necessary to pay what we're asking for," Larson says. "We have no desire to go out on strike. That would be a last resort."
The board has offered an average 3 percent annual pay raise over four years. The union seeks 4.5 percent.
The school board calls its offer "extraordinarily fair."
Larson said it falls between $250,000 and $400,000 a year short of what the union seeks.
The board also wants to phase out a retirement incentive, while the union wants a halt to pay raises that allow more recent hires to "leapfrog" contract provisions.
