CHICAGO — Officials from the Chicago Teachers Union are scheduled to offer an update on the state of bargaining with CPS on Thursday afternoon.
The 3:45 p.m. press conference is to be held only days after a Cook County judge ruled that embattled CPS CEO Pedro Martinez had a legally protected interest to continue negotiating the current teachers contract without interference from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s handpicked school board, which voted to fire Martinez without cause on Friday.
On Tuesday a Cook County judge ruled that Martinez had a legally protected interest to continue negotiating the current teachers contract without interference from Johnson’s board. In court, Martinez argued that board members were inserting themselves into active negotiations without being asked, which was interfering with his job as chief negotiator for CPS.
It was the latest move in a months-long effort to boot Martinez from the position.
The CPS CEO currently stands in the way of Mayor Johnson’s proposal to cover the school district’s budget deficit with a $300 million high-interest loan.
In September, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former CPS teacher and CTU activist, reportedly asked Martinez to resign, though he refused.
