CHICAGO – Unionized Chicago charter school teachers are threatening to walk out on students over vacation time, pay and benefits, echoing the much larger Chicago Teachers Union’s threat to strike this month.

The United Educators of USCN (UNO Charter School Network) are threatening to strike as early as Oct. 19 over stalled union contract negotiations that have dragged on for more than a year, the Chicago Tribune reports.

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About 96 percent of the charter union’s 531 members who cast ballots this week about a potential walkout voted in favor of the strike to put pressure on district officials to settle disputes on pay and benefits.

The United Educators, a branch of the national American Federation of Teachers union, wants to extend teachers’ summer vacation by a week and two days – from the current five weeks – and to cap class sizes at 32 students, CBS Chicago.

Charter school officials doled out teacher raises this year, with the average at 6.2 percent or about $3,822 per teacher, and pleaded with educators to think about their students before walking out in protest.

UCSN CEO Richard Rodriguez posted a statement to the charter network’s website pointing out that “there is no need for a strike, as teacher have already received their salary raises for this current school year.”

The raises came despite a $5.7 million funding cut from Chicago Public Schools, according to CBS Chicago.

Regardless, charter union boss Chris Baehrend justified the threat with the typical union talking points about a “fair contract.”

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“We’re still very far apart,” he told the Tribune. “We’re hoping this pressure will get them to the bargaining table so we can settle a contract without a strike. It’s about getting a fair contract. No one gets into teaching because they’re greedy.”

The strike threat follows a promise by the Chicago Teachers Union, which represents educators in the city’s traditional public schools, to walk out on students Oct. 11 over similar contract disagreements. Ironically, as CTU members protest throughout the city for a new contract that includes a cap on the number of charter schools, CTU officials are helping the UCSN with its contract negotiations, Andrew Broy, head of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, told the Tribune.

He described the situation as “an embarrassment.”

“If this deal is made, Chicago will have the dubious distinction of being the only major American city with a self-imposed cap on the number of charter public schools,” he said.

UNO Charter Network issued a statement about the threatened strike that makes it clear officials are still hopeful to come to an agreement, but they’re also preparing for the worst.

“We remain committed to negotiating with the (United Educators of UCSN) and its contracted CTU representatives, we expect the union to do the same,” the statement read. “Due to this vote (to authorize a strike), we have no option but to be responsible to our parents and students and prepare for the possibility of a strike.”