Stephen K. Ashby, co-author of Staley: The Fight for a New American Labor Movement, has spoken out strongly over the past several weeks about the Chicago Public Schools teachers’ strike.

Last week, as the strike was suspended, he participated in a round table on Chicago Newsroom. Watch the episode here.

This week Professor Ashby was interviewed by University of Illinois’s News Bureau business and law editor Phil Ciciora.  He discussed the outcomes of the strike,

“The union got a 7 percent raise over 3 years, instead of the original offer of 2 percent. . . .

The union won the hiring of 600 additional teachers in art, music, physical education and other subjects. . . .

The board agreed to put it in the contract that textbooks will be available to students on the first day of school. . . .

The union sought but did not succeed in pressuring the Chicago Public Schools board to reduce class size. But the contract would maintain limits on class size.”

He also talked about strategies the union used to educate and mobilize not only its members, but the Chicago public. Read more of the interview here, and read more about an earlier successful union negotiation in Illinois in Staley: The Fight for a New American Labor Movement.