A current dispute with SEIU and militant stances against police are just two reasons why other city unions have reason to believe that the Chicago Teachers Union cares little about solidarity and much about its own interests.
The Chicago Teachers Union is currently in a conflict with the Service Employees International Union over language in the proposed contract that would allow classroom assistants represented by CTU to take over the jobs of classroom assistants currently represented by SEIU.
SEIU risks losing members. CTU would gain members, plus the power and contributions that come from them.
Despite its claims, CTU and its current leadership are no friends of organized labor. CTU even turns against a close ally.
This is a union determined to expand and protect its members and expand its power, even at the expense of other city unions.
This is their power hungry agenda:
Prioritizing Chicago Public Schools staff over other city agencies
The priority City Hall places on schools over municipal departments and agencies is evident in both salary increases and staffing levels. There are 10,000 more non-teaching positions in Chicago Public Schools than there are total police officers in Chicago.
Compare city employee pay increases to those of various city unions with the last teacher contract increasing CTU member salaries between 24 and 50%. Compare the city’s reductions of more than 2,100 public safety positions to more than 9,000 new full-time budgeted positions added to the schools. The CTU is favored with power and money at the expense of everyone else.
Consuming an increasing share of tax money
The CTU has used its political power to secure an increasing share of Chicago’s property tax dollars — without worrying about the other city unions.
CPS, in its quest to meet the needs of the CTU, has been the primary driver of property tax increases for Chicago residents and has consumed an increasing amount of municipal property taxes. Chicago residents pay the second-highest property taxes in the country of any major city, and the share of property tax revenue derived from Chicago’s local government has increased from 45% in 1990 to 56% in 2022. The school district’s share of all non-capital expenditures of city agencies is almost 35%.
In addition to schools accounting for the majority of property taxes, CPS also receives large annual subsidies, or about $800 million last year. This limits the city’s ability to balance its own budget without increasing taxes and fees or reducing city services.
Limiting school choice options for families
In its quest to protect its education monopoly, CTU is determined to block necessary changes in often failing schools and limit any alternatives to private or public schools, such as tax breaks, selective enrollment or charter schools.
This places a financial burden on city workers who refuse to send their children to low-performing CPS schools, but who are not fortunate enough to enroll in selective-enrollment district schools and have only one other option: a private school. The average national cost for one child’s private school education between primary and secondary education is approximately $172,000. For high school alone it is $67,884.
This is especially difficult for members of the SEIU, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the employees of the Chicago Transit Authority, all of whom have salaries well below the salaries of teachers, as well as the salaries of other city workers. . They are also the least likely to maneuver into the magnet school political process, as many CTU leaders and teachers have successfully done.
It is no coincidence that the percentage of Chicago teachers who enroll their children in private schools is over 30%.
Creating an enormous burden on city emergency responders and essential service providers
In addition to the CTU’s role in driving up the cost of living, union leaders consistently demonstrate insensitivity to the needs of other union members. The union’s COVID school closures were a years-long exercise in anti-solidarity with fellow unions. The CTU expected first responders to protect them and essential workers to take care of their medical needs, clean up their trash, and keep the lights on, while depriving many of these workers’ children of real education for 78 weeks.
Meanwhile, CTU members worked from home and enjoyed healthy pay increases and a dramatically reduced workload, while its leaders and activist supporters bashed those who wanted to resume in-person learning. Who can forget a CTU activist’s tweet: “The push to reopen schools is rooted in racism, sexism and misogyny.” It illustrated the level of hysteria that teachers unions like the CTU were creating in large, urban school districts.
The CTU and its national brethren have also fueled the political push for vaccine mandates, causing enormous stress among other government officials. The vaccination mandates and the threat of job losses due to refusal to get vaccinated have wreaked havoc on first responders and essential workers, especially police officers, firefighters and paramedics.
Feeding anti-police sentiments
As if that wasn’t enough damage, the CTU became a crucial player in the progressive movement’s campaign to attack fellow government workers: the police. CTU leaders provided funding to anti-police groups while participating in rallies smearing Chicago police and demanding they be “defunded.” CTU leaders consistently blamed police funding for historic disinvestment in schools and poor communities in general, without considering the fact that five times as much money is spent on schools as on the Chicago Police Department.
The demonization of the police undermined police morale, accelerated the exodus of officers through retirements and transfers, and forced the city to dramatically lower hiring standards to attract new officers. The CTU’s campaign also undermined the trust between the CPD and residents, especially among youth, that is so crucial to helping police close cases. That lack of trust has played no small role in the abysmal arrest figures 13% for violent crimes.
Increasing membership at the expense of its closest ally, SEIU
The SEIU represents special education classroom assistants at CPS and is threatening to sue CPS over a CTU proposal that it says would essentially take jobs from SEIU-represented employees and give them to CTU-represented employees. The teachers union has proposed contract language to CPS that SEIU fears could allow classroom assistants, who are represented by CTU, to take over some of the special education classroom assistant jobs.
Naturally, SEIU leadership blames the school district for the union dispute. They acknowledged that the two unions disagree on how to solve the problem, but naively maintain that the CTU proposal is to pressure CPS to staff special education services, not to steal SEIU members. It is a strategy to pit people against each other, to fight over leftovers as if the CPS made the proposal and not the union itself. Let’s be clear: CTU wants power and positions no matter who it displaces.
Embracing toxic allies
Just look at the CTU’s closest allies to see where their policies and political priorities lie. This includes the Democratic Socialists of America Chicago chapter – which includes six Chicago aldermen – which has called the Chicago Police Department a “white supremacistorganization. Recently, an assistant to a socialist councilor referred to the CPD officers as ‘pigs’ while other local activists encouraged looting. The radical political agenda that CPS has embraced in recent years is intended to distract from poor academic performance, declining enrollment, hollowed-out schools and escalating spending.
The CTU’s radicalism also came to light after Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7. Instead of focusing on failing students, CTU members voted for an arms embargo on Israel, organized pro-Hamas demonstrations and a student-led strike, and ratified a resolution on the Gaza ceasefire. These actions and allies do not serve to help other unions in Chicago. They are likely endangering other union members.
The CTU is no longer a traditionally organized union working on behalf of the labor movement at large. Instead, it is a full-fledged political organization whose objectives are often unrelated and in many cases openly in conflict with traditional organized labor. By making excessive demands, consuming a larger share of tax revenue, demonizing the police, and blocking efforts to improve failing schools and provide alternatives, the CTU has become an existential threat to education, city workers, and all other organized labor .