CTU in talks with charter school teachers

The Chicago Teachers Union is taking steps to merge with the union that represents many of the city's charter schools.

A merger would turn the growing ChiACTS union for charter school staffers into a division of the CTU, which is the country's oldest teachers union.

Both unions still need to approve the proposal, according to a letter obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times that was sent by the union to the hundreds of CTU governing delegates.

The ChiACTS Local 4343 - the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff - would vote as soon as June.

The membership of the Chicago Teachers Union has been dwindling as Chicago Public Schools officials have closed schools and cut staff at its schools. The CTU once considered charter schools the enemy, and bargained hard in its most recent contract for a cap it won on charter schools expansion. But the unions has since embraced ChiACTS as that union has organized staffers in 32 of about 130 charter schools in Chicago.

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