Warren, who often speaks of her own stint as a teacher, was one of several Democratic presidential hopefuls to weigh in on the Chicago strike, stating support for the 25,000 members of the Chicago Teachers Union, who began their walkout last Thursday. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont attended a rally for teachers before the strike, and left a voicemail message last week for the union’s president. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey met on Friday with union members. Others, including former Vice President Joe Biden, have expressed encouragement on Twitter.
“The unions are how we have a voice,” Warren said, standing outside an elementary school where hundreds of teachers and their supporters cheered loudly on a blustery day. “The unions are how we have power. The unions are how we make sure that the needs of every one of our children are heard loud and clear.”
Warren’s trip on Tuesday to the school, on Chicago’s West Side, and the rush by other Democrats to announce support for the teachers, came as negotiations between the union and Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration appeared to grow more tense. Lightfoot, a Democrat who was elected earlier this year, has spoken repeatedly about the school district’s fiscal challenges and has urged teachers to return to work while negotiations continue. Union leaders took offense at the suggestion and said a resolution was not imminent, meaning that more than 300,000 students would remain out of class.
“We’re not going back to work without a legally binding agreement,” said Jesse Sharkey, the union president, on Monday night. “The mayor today has dashed our hopes for a quick settlement.”
In addition to the teachers, a separate union representing thousands of school support workers in Chicago, including classroom aides and security guards, remained on strike Tuesday.
Chicago is a heavily Democratic city with a long history of backing labor unions. As teachers have marched through downtown and picketed outside schools in recent days, they have often been greeted by supportive car honks and parents offering apple cider and doughnuts. But Lightfoot and her predecessor, Rahm Emanuel, whose tenure included an especially bitter teachers’ strike in 2012, have struggled to reconcile demands from the union with the bleak finances of the city and the school system.
“Beyond what we put on the table, there is simply no more money,” Lightfoot said, taking a noticeably harsher tone this week than in the first days of the strike. She added: “Enough is enough. There is no further excuse to keep our kids out of school.”
Of Warren’s arrival, Lightfoot suggested that she was unsurprised by it, but that it would not change much for Chicago.
“She has her right to come in,” Lightfoot said. “I would expect all Democratic candidates for the presidency to support workers. That’s who we are as a party. But at the end of the day, what’s going to get it done is what happens at the bargaining table.”
Warren’s visit on Tuesday conveyed the national resonance of the teachers’ demands for more support staff and smaller class sizes — some of the same issues Lightfoot had pledged during her campaign to work on as mayor. The visit also reflected a shift in the Democratic Party, amid a recent revival of labor activism among teachers around the country. During his presidency, Barack Obama sometimes critiqued teachers’ unions as not focused enough on student achievement, and his administration supported nonprofit charter schools, which are generally not unionized.
More recently, Democrats at all levels of politics have rushed to associate themselves with teachers striking around the nation — in liberal cities like Los Angeles and Denver as well as conservative states like Oklahoma and West Virginia. Leading presidential contenders, including Sanders, Warren, Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris of California, have all vied for endorsements from teachers’ unions.
The Chicago strike, in particular, has been a favorite topic. Harris posted earlier this month that she was “in solidarity with Chicago’s teachers.” Biden wrote on Twitter last week that it was “time we support all workers with the pay and dignity they deserve.”
Another candidate, Julián Castro, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, posted a video before the strike calling attention to the demands of Chicago teachers.
“They’re fighting to make sure that the resources are there for students in their community so that those students can reach their own dreams,” Castro said.
This article originally appeared in
.