School has been canceled for a fourth day in Chicago today (January 10th) as negotiations continue between the Chicago Teachers Union and city officials as the union wants a temporary return to remote learning amid the omicron-driven Covid surge, and the city wants children to be in classrooms.

The union says conditions in schools are currently unsafe amid the surge, with inadequate staffing and Covid testing, and voted last Tuesday night to teach remotely. School has been canceled in the nation’s third-largest school district since.

While negotiating, the two sides are also engaged in a war of words, with Mayor Lori Lightfoot having called the union’s actions an “illegal work stoppage,” and the union calling it a lockout because they want to teach, but from home, until the surge peaks.