33 Million Reasons Why Fed-Up Teachers Want To Unseat CTU Bosses

CHICAGO — By my count, Chicago Teachers Union members have about 33 million reasons to be upset with the union bosses who led the four work-day boycott of in-person learning last month.

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On average, city public school teachers make $86,978 a year. The January walkout cost individual teachers about $1,672.65 in pay. Collectively, the work action pilfered more than $33 million from the paychecks of about 21,500 CTU members who participated in the work action that City Hall called an "illegal strike."

On Tuesday, Members First, a coalition of fed-up rank-and-file CTU members that began as a watchdog group concerned about a lack of transparency in union leadership's political spending — launched a campaign to oust union boss Jesse Sharkey, vice president Stacy Davis Gates and other top union leaders when their terms come up for a vote in May.

"We have seen so much wind at our backs because members are very frustrated by how [the walkout] went down, and the fact that they lost so much pay and got a couple KN95 masks in return," Members First spokesman Josh Brown said.

In response to the lost pay, CTU bosses have offered $300 loans to members who suffered economic hardship due to the walkout, Brown said.

"That's all they can do because they don't have significant financial reserves," he said.

In 2015, CTU had about $8.8 million in cash reserves. Now there's almost none, according to Members First officials.

Where did the money go? Well, that is not a secret.

For years, I've been writing about CTU leaders' penchant for using taxpayer-funded dues to further the goals of union leaders pushing a socialist political agenda by funneling cash to politicians and campaign war chests.

Last year, for instance, I tallied up CTU's contributions to a collection of public officials who signed a letter demanding Mayor Lori Lightfoot bow to the union's demands related to in-person learning.

Together, the lawmakers, aldermen and county commissioners who signed their names to that letter had collected $795,796 from the CTU's political action committee.

MORE ON PATCH: CTU Invested $795,796 In Political Allies Who Lobby Chicago Way

The CTU donated more than $500,000 to campaign funds controlled by former House Speaker Michael Madigan, who has been implicated but not indicted in the feds' massive public corruption probe of ComEd, state records show.

The union padded Cook County Democratic Party boss Toni Preckwinkle's failed mayoral campaign fund with about $300,000.

The now-defunct Chicagoans United for Economic Security Political Action Committee, which was controlled by Gates, received $733,000 in donations from the CTU-controlled campaign funds.

In 2019, Davis Gates closed the fund with a transfer of more than $72,000 back to the CTU's political action committee. Also in 2019, around the time Gates shut down the political fund, Members First drafted a complaint aimed at stopping alleged violations of state campaign financing laws, including failing to report that CTU was a "sponsoring entity" for contributing more than 33 percent of funding to the political committees controlled by Gates.

The complaint also alleged that CTU leaders attempted to circumvent state laws — through acts of "subterfuge" — to support union lobbyist Brandon Johnson's successful run for Cook County commissioner in 2018.

In the draft complaint, Members First alleged that it was not a coincidence the exact amount of CTU PAC donations to Chicago Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza, state Sen. Robert Martwick and the Greater Austin Independent Political Organization were quickly passed on to Johnson's campaign fund in 2018.

Members First officials told Patch, the draft wasn't filed with the state elections board in 2019 for several reasons, including the lack of sufficient punishments that would deter CTU leadership from their political spending practices.

But now, as Gates has emerged as a potential challenger to Mayor Lightfoot, Members First officials say it's time to make CTU political spending transparent after hearing from rank-and-file members who say they're angry and feel "let down" by union leadership that puts politics and ambition over what's best for teachers.

"The big issue that most union members are very frustrated about is that they see very openly that union leadership, particularly Stacy, wants to run for higher office. And work stoppages and strikes are their first course of action, not their last," Brown said.

"And they haven't been able to accomplish very much for rank-and-file union members in terms of making facilities safer … and pay and benefits, bread-and-butter teachers issues. The teachers union should be advocating for union members. Not trying to inflict as much pain as possible on Mayor Lightfoot so that she's a weaker candidate for Stacy Davis Gates."

During the CTU's standoff with City Hall over in-person learning, Sharkey called Lightfoot "relentlessly stupid." After the union cut a deal to return to classrooms, Davis Gates said the mayor was a "one-woman kamikaze" out to destroy schools.

Members First leaders say the harsh rhetoric was viewed by many members as an increasingly clear signal that Davis Gates is using her platform as union vice president to elevate her personal profile while contemplating a run for mayor.

On Tuesday, Politico reported that during an interview, Davis Gates "didn't rule out a run for mayor." And she and Sharkey were quoted defending the most recent walkout.

“This leadership has advocated for good quality public schools for students and the people who work in them," Sharkey told Politico Playbook writer Shia Kapos. "It’s been difficult working with this mayor and the previous one, who are poor listeners. We’re proud of our advocacy.”

For that, Members First's slate of candidates plan to pitch CTU members with a "change in world view" that focuses more squarely on advocating for better working conditions in schools rather than using union dues to chase political power.

"Dues from members should be used to directly support members in their schools and classrooms, first and foremost," Brown said. "We don't have to be in the middle of every political fight in Chicago and the state of Illinois. We could actually be nice to folks and treating people how we teach our students to treat people, and get a lot more done."

Not to mention keep $30 million in the pockets of hardworking teachers.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docuseries on CNN and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary "16 Shots."

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