News In Brief

Tentative settlement reached in Chicago teachers' strike

Pending votes by the Chicago Teachers Union executive board and the union's house of delegates, the three-week strike by Chicago's 40,000 public schoolteachers was settled early Sunday morning.

A tentative one-year agreement, announced jointly by the board and the union, calls for a 4.5 percent raise and a one-time payment of 2.5 percent for the school district's 28,000 teachers, who have also agreed to prolong the school year five days to meet state-aid requirements for a 177-day calendar.

The board also reached tentative agreements with 7,000 members of 17 nonteaching unions. A teachers' union spokesman said blue-collar workers would receive the same percentage salary increase as teachers.