Chicago Teachers Go on Strike

Teachers walked the picket line outside Anthony
Overton School in Chicago Monday

(CHICAGO) About 26,000 teachers and support staff went on strike -- the city's first since 1987 -- after contract talks broke down late Sunday. The key issues: salaries and benefits, job security and teacher evaluation systems. Talks resumed Monday.

The classes were closed for about 350,000 students in the nation's third-largest school district,  as some parents chafed at the disruption and school officials scrambled to find places for displaced students to spend their day.


Mayor Rahm Emanuel criticized union leaders for not delaying the strike, given the progress both sides said had been made in talks through Sunday. "This is a strike of choice, and it's the wrong choice for our children and it's not necessary—totally avoidable," Mr. Emanuel said at a news conference Monday.

Union leaders said the city's recent concessions were effectively too little, too late, after what they have characterized as bullying in talks in the months leading up to the deadline.

At Disney Magnet School on the city's North Side, about 100 teachers wearing union T-shirts marched in front of the campus chanting "enough is enough" and "we want a fair contract." They waved placards with "on strike" and "I love my students."

The scene played out at scores of schools across the city