Chicago Teachers Union Boss Jesse Sharkey Won't Seek Re-Election

CHICAGO — Chicago Teachers Union president Jesse Sharkey, who led teachers on strike in 2019 and last month's in-person learning boycott, will not run for re-election.

"It is my time to move on," Sharkey said in a statement announcing his plans to step aside in June and return to teaching.

"I will not be leaving the movement, the labor struggle or this union. I will return to where my journey began: the classroom. I will do so with fondness for my time in leadership, because I had the joy and privilege of representing educators who care," he said.

Sharkey, 52, took over as interim CTU president in 2014, when then union boss Karen Lewis was diagnosed with brain cancer. He was first elected to replace Lewis in 2018.

Sharkey told reporters that he had been planning the move for a "couple of months" before last month's work stoppage. In a statement, he said "stress and heartache" of his union boss duties weighed heavy on him and his family.

"Our union will remain a force, and our dogged defense of public schools and the willingness to speak truth to power are not going anywhere. But I am. Because it is time," Sharkey said.

"My mother passed away in October of 2020, followed by a brutal school reopening campaign and Karen’s death in February of 2021. My wife, Julie, has stood beside me and experienced all the stress and heartache that I have felt in nearly two decades of this work."