The CTU’s Broader Agenda And The Circumvention Of Democratic Process

By: Mark Glennon*

Some objectives and motives of the Chicago Teachers Union strike are overt and some are less visible, but consider them together and one conclusion is inescapable: The CTU is attempting an end run around ordinary democratic process to impose a radical political agenda. What they cannot accomplish legislatively or at the ballot box they seek to implement by holding students hostage.

Bargaining for the common good

Start with the Bargaining for the Common Good Network, in which the CTU has a major role. It has broad national and local policy goals commonly favored by the far left on topics like rent control, taxation, climate, race, housing, homelessness and more.

But note the first “key principle” of what they are about — “Expand the scope of bargaining beyond wages and benefits.” That’s their top priority because it arms them with power to shut down schools if their political agenda isn’t accepted. It’s the overarching issue that has deadlocked negotiations in Chicago. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has repeatedly complained that bargaining is being held up by issues not appropriate for union collective bargaining, particularly housing and homelessness.

In other words, if you think voters and their elected representatives should make policy decisions, you have opponents. The CTU wants to make them for you and will enforce its choices by closing schools.

CTU Vice President Stacy Davis-Gates

The CTU is a member of that bargaining network. Its Advisory Committee includes CTU Vice President Stacy Davis-Gates, profiled in the Chicago Sun-Times, which said she is “unapologetically demanding solutions to city problems that many — including the mayor — say don’t belong in a labor contract.”

She recently attributed a misspelling of her name to racism and sexism. “My name is misspelled. So pay attention to what’s being said here,” she told the Chicago Tribune. “There’s something to this. The city has a legacy, a culture, of putting black women in the position where life is harder, where they have to be silenced, to take the backseat, and this is an element of it.”

The CTU’s picket lines are the new firing line, as the most far left elements of the media see things, which undoubtedly is helping fuel CTU’s resolve and ego. A few examples:

•  Jacobin, a socialist publication, is positively ecstatic about the strike, with multiple articles. “The Chicago teachers’ strike is about who will shape Chicago: billionaires who buy politicians to privatize schools, or working-class communities who want affordable housing, decent jobs, good schools, and justice.”

•  In These Times has devoted a special section to the strike, the solution to which is taxing the rich, they say. The CTU has “helped galvanize a new wave of teacher militancy that’s seen unions in red states use unauthorized strikes,” they’ve written. “It’s true that CPS has no legal obligation to bargain with the union over affordable housing policy,” they admitted. Evidently, the law shouldn’t matter when your goals are just.

•  And from Vox: “Teacher strikes are changing. The Chicago walkout proves it. They’re about much more than pay raises.” But maybe we should just pity this author. She wrote that the strike makes sense now because “Illinois’ finances are doing much better than they were in 2012 when the teachers last went on strike.” (The state has in fact plummeted nearly $100 billion further into the red since then.)

There’s reason to think voices like that are particularly important to CTU’s socialist President Jesse Sharkey. Sharkey was heavily criticized in the past by some of his fellow socialists for supposedly selling out the movement and abandoning other radicals. Maybe he needs to restore his cred if CTU is to be at the vanguard of a national movement. And you can’t be the champion of a national insurrection if you’re narrowly confined by laws that limit your influence, like those that prohibit collective bargaining on some of the CTU’s demands.

Control over the Chicago School District

Power over Chicago schools ultimately resides in the mayoral-controlled Chicago Board of Education. That has been state law for decades.

Changing it should likewise be a matter of state law, but the CTU is also trying to sidestep that process to seize control of the schools. Crain’s reported the details:

From the outside looking in, the CTU’s strike talk may seem a head-scratcher. Lightfoot has offered a raise and other concessions, after all. But that’s missing the big point: This is a power battle—a fight to determine who calls the shots at CPS… The CTU, meanwhile, wants a rewrite… But in the end, it’s all about who’s the boss.

That assessment is consistent with what we’ve heard about the negotiations from reliable sources – that CTU is attempting a takeover of the school district.

Will that be accomplished by changing the law? No, the CTU seeks to do it by locking kids out of school.

A new strategy that circumvents democratic process is probably also attractive to the CTU because of their failed effort in April’s mayoral election. Before the election, the union confidently predicted a win by Toni Preckwinkle, whom it heavily supported while deriding Lori Lightfoot, and the union bragged about its electoral power. “I feel like we have already won,” said the CTU’s Davis-Gates. “Our movement continues to transform the electorate in Chicago.” Though recent poll results show popular support for the strike, the election indicated they didn’t transform the electorate, so why take the risk on them again?

The CTU delegation in Venezuela with some local workers

Finally – and this one is too obvious – there’s the CTU delegation’s solidarity trip to Venezuela earlier this year, which was ridiculed by national media on the right and the left.

Let’s just say the trip should make one question the union’s respect for democratic process. The delegation blogged about their wonderment with the glories of one of the most repressive regimes on the planet. Jonathan Turley wrote, “The naiveté of the teachers was breathtaking and reminded many of the propaganda trips behind the Iron Curtain in the Cold War by American ”communists.”

Sharkey later claimed the trip wasn’t CTU-sponsored, but the blog remains up where the travelers, which include a CTU Executive Committee member, call themselves a CTU delegation. They also raised money in the union’s name, met with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in union’s name and spoke with media in the union’s name. And the CTU Executive Board and House of Delegates each unanimously passed a resolution opposing “the invasion of Venezuela” and criticizing the United States and its allies for harassing the regime.

Some demands being made by the Chicago Teachers Union relate to salaries, working conditions and other matters traditionally covered by collective bargaining.

But as it sees itself, and its many allies see it, the Chicago Teachers Union is on the front line of a national struggle for their vision of social justice that goes far beyond Chicago and schools. Submit to that vision or the kids don’t go to school. That’s their leverage. That’s their method. That’s what’s most significant about the strike.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints*

More from Wirepoints on CTU and the strike:

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NB-Chicago
4 years ago

The other giant factor in CTU strike is strike is gigantic $ratings$ boost to desperate news media. Especially when you put comrades-gates & sharkey on tv (although there no K. Lewis). What I still find most astounding is the press offers next to zero facts & figures analysis as to weather CTU demands are legit, propaganda or fantasy when it comes to all their claims of staffing shortages. How many nurses does CPS currently employ–good luck trying to find that out. What are the teacher student ratio at CPS compared to other big cities? etc…nobody cares. just put gates on… Read more »

debtsor
4 years ago
Reply to  NB-Chicago

Yes, Chicago is devoid of the middle class, they live primarily on the NW and SW sides. Most of the city is professional folk like me who pay for everything. Oh wait, I don’t live in Chicago anymore.

NB-Chicago
4 years ago
Reply to  NB-Chicago

Warren going to show up tommorow w ctu to promote her $800 billion education plan,,,watch ctu & press go crazy. Elizabeth Warren Unveils $800 Billion Plan to Reshape U.S. Public Education  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-21/warren-plans-800-billion-to-reshape-u-s-public-education

Melissa Pereira
4 years ago

What this is really about is a testament to the failure of the 100 year experiment of a public school system. Taxpayers need to unionize and demand vouchers to either send your child to the school of their choice or homeschool. Pull your kids out of these schools. Now. Public schools are destroying kids.

Tom Paine's Ghost
4 years ago

CTU is truly the worst of public sector unions. It’s difficult to out-slime AFSCME and SEIU but CTU has achieved this lowlight.

Freddy
4 years ago

Maybe the kids are better off not going to school for a while. Seems like the schools are more like prisons and indoctrination centers and very expensive (to taxpayers) child care centers. Armed guards-metal detectors/etc. What’s next strip searching and bomb sniffing dogs? Remember Morgan Freeman’s 1989 movie “Lean On Me” based on a true story of Joe Clark. There are many schools like that all across the country. This has to change.

Rick
4 years ago

They teach socialism, nearly communism, and those systems always take care of the government class first. All they do is in alignment and consistent with collectivism. Even in their employment individual teachers are not given individual performance reviews like all other employees to determine a raise., the whole collective of teachers isn’t event reviewed for a raise, it’s crazy, it doesn’t pay to be a great teacher because the crappiest teachers are making more. Lightfoot should implement individual performance reviews, no more one size fits all paychecks.

nixit
4 years ago

So many CTU complaints: management sucks, the mayor sucks, the pay sucks, the schools are filthy, too many students in my class, the city is too expensive. So many complaints, many of which date back decades. All these complaints at a time in which there apparently is a teacher shortage. So your skills are in high demand. There’s not enough qualified applicants that do what you do. Employment opportunities abound. Your current employment situation is horrible. So what do you do? Fight to stay in the same situation?! It amazes me how the public sector views their current job as… Read more »

debtsor
4 years ago
Reply to  nixit

They are vested in the pension at this job, they’ll never quit. they didn’t even pay into social security. They’d have next to nothing. They’re forced to stay.

Paul
4 years ago
Reply to  debtsor

They have been sold down the river by their Union and Political ‘friends’.

nixit
4 years ago
Reply to  debtsor

There are 851 other school districts to chose from. A good number have better pay. Many more have better working conditions. If you’re obsessed with teaching children with similar socio-economic backgrounds as CPS, go work in the south suburbs or East St Louis or Quad Cities or rural southern IL or Decatur. There are plenty of “needy” kids spread out across the state. And thanks to the Illinois Retirement Systems Reciprocal Act, CPS teachers can transfer their service time to TRS. There is really no excuse to stick around CPS, other than self-loathing. So I’ll say it again: If it’s… Read more »

debtsor
4 years ago
Reply to  nixit

I was not aware of the reciprocal act, that’s interesting, i learn something new every day.

Gemini
4 years ago

I say give all the teachers one week – maximum – to come back to work, or they’re fired.

If they don’t like it, let them all get jobs in Venezuela.

Hank Scorpio
4 years ago

This whole mess is really beyond the pale at this point. And it is un-fixable, because you cannot fix extreme positions and ideologies of the very people who make up the community. There is no arguing or negotiating with people like this. Fire them all and replace the teachers with digital ones. School is mostly just a babysitting service anyway.

On the plus side, it is alot of fun to watch two sides within the same political side eat each other while the ship sinks. It’s no wonder Rahm stepped aside. Total s**t-show.

Cass Andra
4 years ago

There may be no better time than now to fight whatever battles are needed to arrest this movement. Hitler came to power in 1933; occupied the Rhineland in 1936 and invaded Poland in 1939. Teacher strikes or near-strikes 2012, 2016 and 2019. The more turf the CTU controls, the greater the difficulty and damage will be down the road (where we may find the contents of the kicked can to be more like Pandora’s complete box).

Paul
4 years ago
Reply to  Mark Glennon

Communist indoctrination.

debtsor
4 years ago
Reply to  Mark Glennon

It’s sad we both lament the day when the American population believes that words are violence and social justice justifies inequality and the carnage it leaves in its woke wake. We are merely the pagans still giving praying to Mercury, Apollo and Sol while the rest of the culture has forsaken the gods of the old and now pray to the new god of Christianity. Emperor Julian ‘The Apostate’ was raised a Christian but converted back to the way of his pagan ancestors. He tried to pray to the same pagan gods as his forefathers had prayed for the previous… Read more »

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