Inside Higher Ed
by Emma Whitford
August 7, 2020
Three days after returning to campus, employees at City Colleges of Chicago said the colleges are not following their planned COVID-19 spread-prevention protocols. Worried for their safety, the union is threatening to strike.
After four and a half months of remote work, student services staff at the City Colleges of Chicago returned to campus Monday. Just days later, the workers' union representing thousands of CCC employees held a press conference. Working conditions are unsafe, they said, and if the administration doesn’t allow support staff to return to remote work, the union will go on “safety strike.”
“We are here today to urge the City Colleges administration to return to full remote student services for the fall semester, as has been done since March,” said Tony Johnston, president of the Cook County Colleges Teachers Union, which represents about 2,000 faculty, staff and security employees at the CCC.