Save Our Returning Educators

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS leadership have threatened educators by saying if they choose safety and continue to teach remotely, they will be locked out of their classrooms not be paid.

But teachers, clinicians and other staff have legitimate health and safety concerns about returning to school buildings, and a threat by their boss — even a blatantly illegal one — is still frightening.
 
We are expanding our GoFundMe campaign to include clinicians, early childhood educators, SPED cluster teachers and specials teachers, in addition to clerks, clerk assistants and technology coordinators, to assist anyone facing financial hardship due to being forced by CPS leadership and Mayor Lightfoot to choose between life and livelihood.

Previously, the mayor and CPS forced our school clerks, clerk assistants and technology coordinators to work in unsafe buildings, even after a legally binding decision by an arbitrator ruled that they can work from home like they did last spring.

That's a double standard that makes no sense.

Clerks are the lifelines of school communities. These are the women who voted out Donald Trump and saved our democracy. Veteran educators who are the heads of their households, and who often sustain other households. Mothers, grandmothers, guardians and aunts.

As they rightfully chose their own health and safety, and the health and safety of their families and colleagues by working remotely, CPS illegally threatened to discipline them by docking pay or even firing. 

Our clerks are mostly Black and Brown women from Roseland, Austin, Gage Park, Englewood, Little Village and neighborhoods ravaged by COVID-19. They successfully worked from home for months before the mayor and her handpicked Board of Ed took up this reckless policy.

Now the mayor hopes to force them, and their colleagues, into the false choice of salary or safety.  
 
These courageous workers need to know that, if Mayor Lightfoot and CPS leadership try to go through with their threats, educators can count on help with groceries, rent and mortgage, and child care while we continue to fight.

An injury to one is an injury to all, and our union will be there to help them through this difficult time.

While we are grateful for community support and that of our brothers and sisters in labor, we will not accept any financial support from employers, employer-side labor relations experts, advisers, or consultants, nor will we accept any contributions from anyone who is an agent of an employer or who is acting in the interest of an employer. Contributions from such individuals should not be made through this platform and will not be accepted if they are. For any questions concerning the source of contributions, please contact the sponsor of this page.