DPS Teachers Get Assurance Of Pay, Plan To Return To Classroom

DETROIT (WWJ) - Detroit Public schools teachers will be back in their classrooms Wednesday after staging a two-day sickout over concerns of possible payless paydays.

Teachers packed the Fellowship Church in Detroit and were assured that they will be paid for their work.

That assurance came by way of a letter from DPS Transition Manager Judge Steven Rhodes to the teachers union just minutes before the Detroit Federation of Teachers meeting Tuesday night.

Members said they were ready to talk about a strike vote on this second day of what they called a forced lockout.

Randi Weingarten of the National Teachers Union said, "we were going to make sure that a fundamental right to be paid for the work earned was assured - they blinked and they assured that right."

About 45,000 students were out of the classroom Monday and Tuesday as hundreds of teachers in the district staged a walkout -- saying they would not work in the face of payless paydays.

Teachers are expected to return to the classroom Wednesday.