Remote work denied for CPS teachers who are nursing mothers, but district denies CTU claim it broke promise to union on accommodations

Members of the Chicago Teachers Union claim the school district went back on its word by denying requests to work remotely while they’re nursing or have not found acceptable child care that they say the district agreed to help facilitate.

Four educators — two who are nursing infants and two with older children without child care that aligns with their mothers’ teaching schedules — spoke at a CTU-hosted news conference Thursday. They said that when the union was negotiating a return to in-person instruction with Chicago Public Schools, they had been assured they would be granted accommodation to remain at least partially remote to nurse, a claim the district refutes. The union initially also had asked that teachers also be provided a schedule that would allow them to pick up their children from care providers without having to take unpaid personal time off work.

“This all comes as a really big surprise,” said Danielle Cain, a second and third grade teacher and mother to a young son born before the COVID-19 pandemic. “I feel like it’s unfair that I’m being forced to choose between my infant and the seven out of 18 students that I empower in my physical classroom.

“It makes me feel undervalued; it makes me feel unseen as a mother, as a wife, as a daughter and female teacher that I identify as. Overall, I would like to see the administration recognize that female educators make up about 80% (of teachers) and we deserve the responsiveness to safely balance our families and our students,” Cain said.

Another nursing mother and teacher at Wendell Phillips Academy High School, Alejandra Loera, said she provided paperwork filled out by both a lactation consultant and her doctor who confirmed Loera is still nursing her son. But Loera said her request for an accommodation was denied anyway.

“I don’t think they should go promising stuff and then randomly change their minds,” she said.

But a representative of Chicago Public Schools said no such promise was made.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, current evidence suggests breast milk cannot spread the virus from mother to child. As such, nursing mothers with no other underlying risk factors are not at increased risk and are therefore not eligible for accommodations, the district said.

“Chicago Public Schools and CTU reached a fair agreement that prioritizes the health and safety of teachers, staff and students and the district has upheld its obligations,” press secretary James Gherardi wrote in an emailed statement.

“Since schools began reopening, the district based its ADA accommodations eligibility on the CDC’s science-based assessment of medical risks associated with COVID-19. All employees at increased risk for severe illness continue to be granted accommodations, including pregnant mothers,” he said.

The CTU news conference did not include testimony from any pregnant mothers, although a news release included pregnant educators in a grouping of employees it said, “were to be allowed to teach remotely” per the agreement.

The district said pregnant mothers who requested accommodations had them granted because pregnancy meets CDC criteria for increased risk of COVID-19 infection.

The district additionally said the union’s news conference and false claims about an agreement regarding nursing mothers was an attempt to distract from the successful reopening of schools.

In the union news conference, educators who have had trouble arranging childcare around their work schedules also spoke about the lack of flexibility for educators that they feel is customary in other fields.

Eleshia Smith, a teacher at Farragut High School, said her son must be picked up at 2:30 p.m. but her schedule requires her to work until 3:45 p.m. She said she feels fortunate she was able to find a trusted person to pick up her son but that situation is only temporary and does not allow for flexibility should her son get sick or something else go wrong during the day. Other teachers in her situation have had to take unpaid time off to care for their own children because the district has not upheld its promise to work provide a solution for teachers, she said.

To help free up staff members to work in person, CPS has allowed staff members’ children to attend in-person classes four days a week, even as most CPS students are still limited to two days. This policy has been criticized by some other CPS working parents who don’t have that choice for their own families. But Smith said the approach hasn’t worked for all employees’ families.

“The decision to not allow any type of child care accommodations outside of going to a learning hub or going to our school four days a week is not helpful if the hours don’t match up with your work hours,” Smith said. “The type of help that working teachers like myself need is for tuition-based after school care.”

Union President Jesse Sharkey asserted that CPS has not lived up to assurances given when the two sides were hammering out a reopening deal and that CPS shouldn’t expect the union to keep quiet about the issue.

“At the bargaining table, the CTU asked the district to show some sympathy, some empathy, some grace, some flexibility in a situation where teachers … are also living through a pandemic, are also sending our children to school, are also in the community,” he said.

Sharkey said, for example, teachers who don’t have a class during the first or last period of the day should be able to arrive later or leave earlier to get their own children settled wherever they will be receiving child care for the day.

“That was something that we fought about, it was one of the last issues on the table. And they basically said they’re not willing to do that, it was too complicated from their point of view as an employer and the answer was no. So the only thing they actually gave us in this regard, and this is a small subset of what we wanted, was a promise that pregnant and nursing moms could have an accommodation. And then they’ve turned around and said they won’t even honor all of that commitment,” Sharkey said.

He said the union — whose resistance to reopening schools without a bargained deal led to several delays in the resumption of in-person classes — expects the district to “do the minimum” and live up to the promises they made.

“People have to have confidence that schools really have their back … and we haven’t seen it yet and we’re going to keep pushing until we see it,” he said.

kdouglas@chicagotribune.com

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