Mayor Johnson paints himself into a corner on paid parental leave

It was easy to see this coming a mile off: The day after Mayor Brandon Johnson granted a new benefit to public school employees, the Fraternal Order of Police got into the act and said it wants the same — 12 weeks of paid parental leave — for its members.

As much as this editorial board has sharply criticized bombastic FOP President John Catanzara in the past, it’s hard to blame him for the YouTube video posted last week. In that video, he noted that since Johnson gave Chicago Public Schools employees paid leave without bargaining, “We certainly expect the same considerations for our membership.”

Parents, we think, deserve time off work to care for a new baby. Which is why we would expect unions to bargain aggressively for paid leave — the kind of wage and benefit issues usually on the table during union contract negotiations — and for employers to balance the need to treat workers fairly with what makes fiscal sense for the city as a whole.

Where was the urgency for Johnson to simply hand over the leave benefit, virtually guaranteeing the FOP and others would want the same?

Johnson, a former CPS teacher and paid organizer for the CTU, just continued setting the stage for Chicagoans to be ever more skeptical that he won’t put his former colleagues first by rubber-stamping whatever the union wants.

Chicago will be among the few school districts in the country that offer three months paid parental leave when the benefit kicks in during the 2023-24 school year. And while policies that benefit families should be a goal, the wallets of taxpayers — most of whom likely don’t have the same benefit at their workplace — must be a consideration as well. The new CPS policy could cost the cash-strapped district up to $10 million.

Less than 3% of birthing parents take advantage of the current six weeks paid leave allotted for CPS employees, and most take up to 12 weeks off by adding on accumulated sick days, the Sun-Times’ Fran Spielman reported last week. 

Other city workers already have 12 weeks paid parental leave. Meanwhile, the sick pay policy for Chicago police allows them to take up to 365 days off every two years. CTU members, it must be noted, have summers off, though many teachers perhaps teach summer school or spend time on professional development and planning.

Johnson says paid parental leave isn’t a gift to teachers, but a policy for Chicago. He shouldn’t be surprised if others see it differently.  

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