Chicago, IL – The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) announced on Saturday, May 17, that its members had re-elected the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE) to lead the union for another term, with CORE leader Stacy Davis Gates continuing as president. This comes one month after members approved a new contract containing over 100 wins for union members and the students, with 97% of members voting to approve.

CORE is the class-struggle-oriented caucus that has led the union for 15 years. Rank-and-file unionists founded the caucus in 2008 in opposition to the neoliberal policies of Mayor Richard M. Daley, which brought privatization, school closures and instability that particularly affected Black communities in the city’s South and West Sides. The caucus first won election in 2010 under the leadership of the late Karen Lewis. Today, much of the CTU rank and file reveres Lewis’s legacy of engaging union members, families and communities in a fight for social justice.

Today, the CORE caucus advocates explicitly for Black and Latino children, who together make up over 80% of the students enrolled in Chicago Public Schools. On May 21, for example, President Davis Gates, Vice President Jackson Potter, and other leaders from CORE advocated against a snap curfew proposal on the floor of the Chicago City Council, criticizing it as criminalizing Black and brown youth.

“What our children need isn’t criminalization – it’s care,” the leadership team said in a joint statement. “They need sustained investment in public education, mental health care, recreational spaces and strong mentorship.” Such instances of advocacy on city council resolutions reflect the CORE caucus’s class-struggle approach: fighting to empower working communities at the bargaining table and beyond.

CORE won the election with 64% of the vote, with the REAL caucus (or the Respect Educate Advocate Lead caucus) garnering 36%. School-by-school results released on May 27 reveal that schools in the predominantly Black South and West Sides tend to support CORE at higher rates. This may reflect the caucus’s history of Black leadership and advocacy for Black communities facing school closures. Additionally, most unionized charter schools voted for CORE by wide margins, which may reflect the caucus’s recent history in leading unionization efforts within charter school networks.

Under CORE leadership, the Chicago Teachers Union continues to claim victories against the neoliberal trends that CORE’s founders sought to oppose. Former CTU member Mayor Brandon Johnson has advocated maintaining the ongoing moratorium on neighborhood school closures. The Chicago Teachers Union also recently advocated for a charter accountability resolution, which the Chicago Board of Education passed on May 29. The resolution strengthens protections for students, communities and public funds in the event of a charter school closure, as well as strengthening labor rights for charter school teachers. This comes on the heels of a contentious struggle over the proposed closure of seven out of 15 schools in the Acero charter network, which resulted in a campaign that ultimately saved five schools when Chicago Public Schools agreed to reintegrate them as traditional public schools.

Given recent attacks by the Trump administration on the immigrant, African American, and LGBTQ communities, the CTU plans to continue to build solidarity and fight in various arenas.

“We will continue to build the strongest force field around our students, our members, our school communities, our city and our union,” the CTU leadership wrote in a press release. “The greatest protection against attacks — whether it is from an out-of-line administrator or an out-of-line president — is each other.”

#ChicagoIL #IL #Labor #Teachers #CORE #CTU

The contested election underscores the internal democracy inside the CTU, in which debates about the direction and functioning of the union took place in school meetings across the city, in member forums on the internet, and in the union’s governing body, the House of Delegates.

Re-elected CTU President Jesse Sharkey, who took over from Karen Lewis when she retired for health reasons in September, made the following statement in the wake of the announcement of election results:

“I am proud of our union and honored to be elected as president. I commit to do everything in my power to advance the cause of our public schools, and our members who work in those schools. Since coming into office with Karen Lewis in 2010, we have done our utmost to build a strong, democratic movement for educational justice – the CTU sees dignity and respect on the job as going hand in hand with social, racial, and economic justice for our students, and we are committed to fight for the rights of every member and every student in Chicago.

“Over the past several years, we have witnessed the deepest cuts and worst fiscal austerity measures since the state takeover of CPS in 1979-80. As a result of the hard work by teachers, students, and parents our schools have made some gains, despite the financial hardships. However, conditions in the classrooms have reached a breaking point – with school-based budgeting disasters, unsanitary conditions, critical staffing shortages, a full-blown legal crisis surrounding special education, insufficient supports for student trauma, the precipitous decline of Black and veteran educators in the classroom, and the list goes on. A typical school in Chicago has a school nurse just one day a week.

“This must change. The CTU will work to dramatically improve the conditions in our schools and usher in an elected, representative school board. The new CTU contract provides an important opportunity to enshrine key improvements in a legally binding form. We hope that the new mayor makes good on her promises to transform our public schools. If she does, she will find us to be a steadfast ally. If she does not, she will find us to be an implacable foe.”

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #union #TeachersUnions #CTU #CORE

The contested election underscores the internal democracy inside the CTU, in which debates about the direction and functioning of the union took place in school meetings across the city, in member forums on the internet, and in the union’s governing body, the House of Delegates.

Re-elected CTU President Jesse Sharkey, who took over from Karen Lewis when she retired for health reasons in September, made the following statement in the wake of the announcement of election results:

“I am proud of our union and honored to be elected as president. I commit to do everything in my power to advance the cause of our public schools, and our members who work in those schools. Since coming into office with Karen Lewis in 2010, we have done our utmost to build a strong, democratic movement for educational justice – the CTU sees dignity and respect on the job as going hand in hand with social, racial, and economic justice for our students, and we are committed to fight for the rights of every member and every student in Chicago.

“Over the past several years, we have witnessed the deepest cuts and worst fiscal austerity measures since the state takeover of CPS in 1979-80. As a result of the hard work by teachers, students, and parents our schools have made some gains, despite the financial hardships. However, conditions in the classrooms have reached a breaking point – with school-based budgeting disasters, unsanitary conditions, critical staffing shortages, a full-blown legal crisis surrounding special education, insufficient supports for student trauma, the precipitous decline of Black and veteran educators in the classroom, and the list goes on. A typical school in Chicago has a school nurse just one day a week.

“This must change. The CTU will work to dramatically improve the conditions in our schools and usher in an elected, representative school board. The new CTU contract provides an important opportunity to enshrine key improvements in a legally binding form. We hope that the new mayor makes good on her promises to transform our public schools. If she does, she will find us to be a steadfast ally. If she does not, she will find us to be an implacable foe.”

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #union #TeachersUnions #CTU #CORE