Posts tagged Chicago
Report: The diminishing power of teacher unions
May 29, 2026 // The result is A Crowded Table: Teacher Union Strength in 2026. Building on our original study, the authors set out to gauge teacher union strength in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.). Collectively, the 59 measures—which include 29 new measures that were not in the original report—seek to quantify union strength in five key areas: Resources and Membership; Involvement in Politics; Labor and Bargaining Policies; Policy Wins and Losses; and Perceived Influence, which draws from an original survey examining how stakeholders in each of the 50 states and D.C. perceive teacher union strength today. The states with the strongest teacher unions are Vermont, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Hawaii. The states with the weakest teacher unions are Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Mississippi. (See our interactive table on the report website for the overall rankings alongside the rankings for each of the five areas.)
Faster Labor Contracts Act would silence workers’ voices and empower bureaucrats
May 28, 2026 // While forced arbitration for union contracts would be new in the private sector, there is a corollary in the public sector called “interest arbitration” that some states most frequently apply to police and firefighter labor disputes. It’s not entirely analogous because a government that imposes forced arbitration is also the employer and thus part of the contract negotiations. Moreover, governments aren’t subject to the same bottom line as private sector companies because, unlike businesses, states generally can’t go bankrupt. Nevertheless, interest arbitration contracts have burdened state and local governments, arguably contributing to rising property tax rates in New Jersey, unfunded pensions in Chicago, and even municipal bankruptcy in Detroit.
Clinicians push to unionize amid staffing, burnout concerns
May 25, 2026 // Among the most recent efforts in May are the more than 73% of the 870 nurses at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, Wis., who signed cards supporting unionization. The group filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board on May 1 and is awaiting an election date. Nurses involved in the effort said they want a stronger voice in decisions affecting staffing, retention and working conditions.
Workers at Planned Parenthood’s largest affiliate are unionizing, citing Trump cuts
May 13, 2026 // Sotoa said union representation would secure workers' voices in decisions over staffing and resources under threat by the cuts. Planned Parenthood workers at affiliates in Oregon, Maine, Minnesota, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and other parts of California, have already formed unions in response to the Trump administration and the changes they have prompted in their clinics' staffing, pay and workplace conditions.
University of Chicago Press Staffers Move to Unionize
May 6, 2026 // The UCP Workers Guild would be the first union in the nonprofit publisher's 130-year history. If not recognized voluntarily, workers will seek a mail election monitored by the National Labor Relations Board. A supermajority of the 139 eligible staffers across the nonprofit publisher's divisions has already signed union cards, according to the Guild.
600 groups with $2B in revenue mobilize 3,000 May Day protests in a ‘red-blue’ alliance, probe finds
May 1, 2026 // The California Democratic Party is using the pro-Democratic tech platform, Mobilize.us, to promote "Workers over Billionaires May Day rally" protests, like at the corner of Monroe Street and Highway 11 in Indio, Calif. In its publicity material, the California Democratic Party notes it's "the largest state party in the nation with more than 10 million members." The Ohio Democratic Party Progressive Caucus, North Carolina’s Young Democrats of Moore County, Young Democrats of Wisconsin and the Yuba County Democratic Central Committee are on the official list of organizers for a coalition, "May Day Strong," promoted online.
Brookfield Zoo staff vote to authorize strike beginning Friday
May 1, 2026 // More than 200 employees at Brookfield Zoo Chicago who are members of the Teamsters Local 727 union voted Tuesday night to authorize a labor strike beginning Friday, May 1, when the existing collective bargaining agreement is set to end at 11:59 a.m. The vote occurred after members of the union — which represents workers in the zoo’s animal care, custodial, grounds and police departments — agreed to reject the zoo’s last, best and final offer, given Monday, April 27.
Lunchroom workers block Downtown street in protest as contract talks with CPS stall
April 29, 2026 // Lunchroom workers, who are among the lowest-paid full-time workers in Chicago Public Schools, want to be paid $40,000 a year. But the cash-strapped district hasn’t agreed to that minimum and is asking a federal mediator to step in.
Chicago Public Schools declare May 1 a ‘day of civic action’ for students
April 20, 2026 // However, CPS added that schools can allow "optional participation" in "civic engagement events" for students who wish to attend protests or take part in civic activities during the school day under state laws. "Principals may exercise their existing authority to provide students the opportunity to participate in events and field trips, including civic engagement activities on May 1 during the school day. Schools wishing to participate must follow the existing CPS student travel policy and normal field trip procedures," the CPS statement read.
‘Blue Power’ and the Rise of Police Union Politics
April 18, 2026 // "Everybody else can indulge in politics—every black group, every political party group, every church group," groused Carl Parsell, then president of the Detroit Police Officers Association, in 1969. "Why are police officers so different?" The question goes to the heart of Stuart Schrader's Blue Power, a new book charting how police unions accreted and cemented power in the decades following Parsell's query. It's a ripe subject for review: Police officers' savvy use of public sector unions and lobbying to largely immunize themselves from oversight is one of the greatest political coups in recent American history. In under four decades, police unions evolved from beer-drinking clubs to organized bargaining units to potent political forces at the local, state, and national levels.