By Max Kutner

Law360 (December 7, 2020, 8:20 PM EST) -- The state of Illinois should stop the country's third-largest public school system from reopening classrooms until the city of Chicago and the Chicago Teachers Union agree on safety standards around COVID-19, the union said in a request to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board on Monday.

CTU followed up on a previous motion for an injunction with a new request that the state force the Chicago Board of Education to bargain over safety standards before Chicago Public Schools starts to hold in-person learning again in January. The union said that such negotiations were required under the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act.

"These actions create conditions that endanger the health and safety of the CTU's members," the union said in its motion. "CBE had an obligation to bargain about its decision before it announced its decision to the public and to its employees."

The union, which according to its website has approximately 20,000 members, filed a previous motion for relief with the IELRB in October to stop the reopening.

But the following month, the IELRB denied the injunction, saying the Chicago Board of Education had "not made any movement in furtherance of its goal that would amount to a unilateral change," so relief was not yet necessary, and that it would reconsider if the school board set a date for employees to return, according to the new motion.

Since then, the school board has announced that the public school system's youngest students would return to in-person learning in January and slightly older students would do so in February.

"CPS announced this decision without notice to the CTU and without bargaining about the decision with the CTU," the union said in its new motion. "Since CPS has now set a specific schedule for employees to return to work, this case is now ripe for relief."

CTU said the school board had not negotiated with it on the reopening decision, in violation of the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act, which says health and safety matters are a subject of bargaining, according to the motion.

An injunction is necessary "so that the terms for resumption of in person classes can be determined by good faith collective bargaining instead of by executive fiat," the motion said.

CTU deputy general counsel Thaddeus Goodchild said teachers are eager to return to classrooms but want to do so safely.

"It's just a virtual certainty that being back in schools, teachers and students will come into contact and be exposed to people who are infected, and CPS has refused to bargain with us around the protocols that need to be in place to do that safety," Goodchild told Law360 on Monday. "That just strikes at the complete self-servingly concocted metric that has nothing to do with safety and everything with their achieving their political objective."

Besides agreeing on safety standards, the school system must also put in place safety resources, such as screening, testing and contract tracing for COVID-19, as well as personal protective equipment, a nurse in every school, smaller class sizes and upgrades to ventilation systems, the union said in a statement Monday.

The union also said in the statement that the school board had admitted during meetings that it had not tested its ventilation systems to see if they could help stop COVID-19 from spreading, and that the school system had in place just a quarter of the 400 custodial staff members it said it would hire.

But the school system said it had spoken with the union and that reopening was necessary.

"The district has been in discussions with the CTU since the beginning of the closure and has transformed schools' health and safety protocols to ensure schools are safe and ready to welcome students," CPS spokesperson Emily Bolton said in a statement Monday. "Numerous studies and data from schools in Chicago and throughout the country have shown that classrooms can safely reopen with proper mitigation strategies, and we must open our doors in order to counter the dire educational consequences for students who need support the most."

Ellen Maureen Strizak, general counsel for the IELRB, told Law360 on Monday that the matter will be on the agenda for the board's Dec. 17 meeting.

Illinois is not the only state facing push back from unions related to school openings. Teacher unions or their advocates in states including Florida and Texas have fought plans to reopen schools, citing safety concerns.

Counsel for the union and the school system were not immediately available for comment.

The union is represented by Stephen A. Yokich of Dowd Bloch Bennett Cervone Auerbach & Yokich.

CBE is represented by Sally J. Scott, Nicki B. Brazer and Erin K. Walsh of Franczek PC.

The case is Chicago Teachers Union, Local No. 1 IFT-AFT v. Chicago Board of Education, case number 2021-CA-0043-C, before the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.

--Additional reporting by Braden Campbell. Editing by Abbie Sarfo.

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