Chicago, IL – On the snowy Thursday evening of November 21, the chambers of the Chicago Temple were heated up by the fighting spirits of over 1500 school staff, students and community members. The rally was organized by the Chicago Teachers Union to demand the settlement of its contract with Chicago Public Schools, which is made more urgent by Trump's intentions to dismantle the federal Department of Education.

“We need leadership of Chicago Public Schools who will protect us from Trump and his troops,” declared CTU President Stacy Davis Gates.

Four months after the expiration of the 2019 contract, CPS, under the leadership of CEO Pedro Martinez, has refused to budge on many of CTU’s contract proposals which would defend Chicago’s public schools from Trump's racist, bigoted and anti-education agenda.

“We need this contract before January 20 so we can protect our local communities from federal attacks,” said Corey Blake, a music teacher and co-chair of CTU’s LGBTQIA+ Committee.

Speakers also connected Trump's policies to the decades long neoliberal campaign to defund public schools all over the country, which has manifested in hundreds of school closures in Chicago since 2000.

“If Trump succeeds, many more schools will have to close,” said Angelica Jaurez, a parent at Fuentes Elementary School.

In October, Acero Charter Schools announced plans to close seven of its campuses, including Fuentes, by the end of the school year, a decision which would leave 2000 students and 200 teachers without a school.

The instability and lack of accountability of charter schools like Acero is the future envisioned by Trump and others who want to dismantle the public school system. In opposition are CTU and its contract demands, which Southside high school student organizer Catelyn Savado described as “a love letter to the people of Chicago.”

CTU brought 750 proposals to the bargaining table in April on issues ranging from raises that keep up with inflation, to restorative justice and improving school buildings. Neoliberal politicians and corporate media have criticized the contract proposals for demanding too much money from the city. CPS CEO Pedro Martinez sent a mass email on the day of the rally complaining about the increases to the school budget that the contract proposals would necessitate.

CTU responded by explaining how negotiations have advanced beyond Martinez's description, which they referred to as “a reckless PR stunt” in a statement released on Friday, and speakers at the Thursday rally argued that the contract proposals simply address the needs of Chicago's children.

6th Ward Alderman William Hall outlined the contradiction between the budgetary priorities of the Chicago neoliberal establishment and the needs of the people, stating, “We have $1.5 billion for prisons, yet we still can't find $1 billion to educate our children.”

Speakers also highlighted previous contract victories that CTU won through militant action, including air conditioning in schools, smaller class sizes, and sanctuary schools for immigrant families. While the CTU has an ally rather than an enemy in the mayor’s office for the first time in decades, they are still facing neoliberal politicians, CPS bureaucracy and millions of corporate dollars organized through right-wing groups like the Illinois Policy Institute and the Illinois Network of Charter Schools.

“Be encouraged when they send millions of dollars to beat you because they're scared of you,” Teachers Pension Fund Trustee Quentin Washington said about the $6 million spent by INCS and similar organizations on the November 5 school board elections. Despite being vastly outspent, candidates supported by the CTU-led Our Schools Coalition won four of ten elected positions as opposed to three won by charter school interests.

“Republicans, right wingers, and neoliberals do not get to win,” Savado said. “One thing we have that they don't have is people power!”

“From Gaza to Little Village to Altgeld and all over the country, the children are all ours, every single one of them, and it is our duty to fight for all of them,” said music teacher Kathryn Zamarrón, describing the need for solidarity between local, national and international struggles.

“The call to action is not just to tweet or cry and hug about it. The call to action is solidarity,” said Davis Gates, summing up the fighting unity between the many diverse communities represented by the rally’s speakers and crowd.

After the rally, the union members and supporters marched several blocks to Federal Plaza. Chants demanding a fair contract and calling for Pedro Martinez to “get out the way” echoed through the downtown streets.

CTU aims to settle this contract using tactics of militance and solidarity, and wants it done before Trump's inauguration on January 20, a day which will see protests in Washington DC, Chicago and around the U.S.

#ChicagoIL #ChicagoTeachersUnion #CTU #CPS #UnionPower #LaborRights #Trump #Feature

Chicago, IL – Teaching artists and school office staff at Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts) have voted to join the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), June 3. Three office staff voted to join the union, and later in the day, part-time arts teachers – who make up the backbone of the school’s programs in the visual arts, music, theater, dance and creative writing conservatories voted 75% (41 yes to 14 no ) to join the union.

“It’s a joy and an honor to welcome these new members into the CTU family,” said CTU President Jesse Sharkey. “This school doesn’t run without its office staff and its teaching artists, and this vote is their embrace of organizing in unity to improve working conditions for educators and learning conditions for ChiArts students.”

Stagnant wages, lack of job security and basic rights fueled the push by teaching artists to join the union, the same way those conditions pushed full-time educators to join the CTU in 2018. Since that time, with the first negotiated contract under their belt, ChiArts CTU members have seen wages and working conditions improve, school staff stabilize and educators given a voice at the table.

By joining the union, the school’s teaching artists and main office staff seek the same basic rights and valued voice as their union colleagues at the school.

The vote came despite relentless pressure from management to reject unionizing and joining the CTU.

“I feel a great sense of pride and joy in being a part of this effort with my colleagues,” said Patrick Lentz, visual arts department assistant and teaching artist. “It has been really enjoyable building relationships and connecting with one another. What we have created in terms of solidarity across our conservatories and school is powerful. No amount of anti-union letters can make a dent in the sense of community that has come out of our organizing.”

ChiArts is a CPS “contract” school. Similar to charter schools, contract schools are publicly-funded but privately-run institutions. ChiArts receives funding from CPS, along with private donations, and admits public school students into its intensive visual and performing arts program. But, like charters, the school is governed by a separate administration, has its own board, and operates independently.

The teaching artists are essential to ChiArts mission to provide creative programming for budding student artists. While the school’s full-time educators have had job security and other union protections since 2018, until today, the school’s artist teachers could be fired with impunity.

Rounds of unilateral decisions from management and chronic job insecurity spurred the organizing drive by ChiArts teaching artists. Without union protections, these educators, who are critical to the ChiArts mission, could be fired for no reason, regardless of their value to the school community. Workers also viewed unionizing as a fundamental way of supporting students’ agency and growth going forward.

“As an alumni of ChiArts, I want to provide the best education to the students – and that's not possible if I, as a teacher, am not being treated fairly,” said music teaching artist Kurt Shelby. “I can't give the students what they need if I don't have what I need. This union effort and the sense of community that has been built has restored my hope for the future.”

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #TeachersUnions

Chicago, IL – Members of the Chicago Teachers Union’s House of Delegates voted to end a four-day remote learning action and return to school. The union announced today that by a vote of 55.5% in favor that the union would accept an agreement with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s handpicked school board.

Teachers returned on Tuesday, January 11 to get tested and encourage parents to sign their children up for COVID-19 testing at the school. Students returned the today for in person instruction.

Chicago Mayor Lightfoot escalated the action when she locked teachers out hours after the remote action began. CTU members were moved to act during spiking COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. The rising crisis highlighted the mayor’s unwillingness to spend federal dollars on testing as well as other safeguards.

Lightfoot appoints all members of the Chicago Board of Education as well as the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health. The mayor has been more than willing to use these officials to do the bidding of big business during the pandemic. “Don’t bother me with the facts, just keep these schools open,” has been her policy as well as the policy of her hand-picked Health Commissioner Allison Arwady, the chair of her Board of Education, Miguel Del Valler and all the Chicago big business roundtable talking heads.

In the face of this CTU took action. They recognized the inequality in the system while they stood up for themselves, but more importantly they stood up for their students and their families. “For too long our Black and Latino schools have been given the short end of the stick and this pandemic​ has been no different,” said high school social studies teacher Saul Garcia, “I stood for this action because I went through CPS community schools and now as a teacher I have seen the inequities that are in these neighborhood schools populated by oppressed nationality students of color. A disproportionate number of oppressed people of color are the ones being infected and dying and our mayor still wants to say that our schools are the safest place for our students.”

The union fight succeeded in making some changes to increase testing, masking and the ability to move back to remote learning when extreme conditions hit. “It’s difficult to name a victory when we had to fight for the most basic protections. But fight we did! We further exposed Lightfoot and her team as being entirely devoted to the interests of capital despite the somewhat progressive platform she ran on. Sometimes fighting when the odds are against us and getting others to see the truth in stark clarity are the biggest wins,” said CTU Delegate Elijah Eilier.

The Chicago Teachers Union took militant actions to support students in the district schools and in the charter schools. They should be applauded as an example of class struggle unionism.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #TeachersUnions #ChicagoTeachersUnion