Posts tagged Chicago
Billboard campaign spotlights Oregon union’s flirtation with socialism
August 2, 2024 // What many teachers paying monthly dues to the Oregon Education Association (OEA) may not know is that their union has opened its doors to the nation’s foremost socialist group, allowing DSA to hold monthly meetings in OEA’s Salem office, as reported by the Freedom Foundation’s Research & Government Affairs Associate Ben Straka earlier this year. To inform Salem educators about the questionable use of their dues-funded union headquarters, the Freedom Foundation’s Oregon team developed and positioned billboards in the area, announcing: “OEA
Labor groups begin to unite behind Harris’ campaign — but some holdouts remain
July 24, 2024 // Yet some notable union holdouts remain, suggesting Harris will still have some work to do to win over other working-class voters. On Monday, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the biggest federation of unions in the U.S. and a longtime supporter of President Joe Biden, announced its endorsement of Harris.
Teamsters president’s RNC speech highlights Trump’s efforts to lure working-class voters
July 17, 2024 // An internal straw poll from the Teamsters showed 37 percent support for Trump, 46 percent for President Joe Biden and 5 percent for independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The rest were undecided, uncommitted or may not vote, board member John Palmer told POLITICO. But he added that not every local participated because they did not want to provoke tensions in their memberships. At Trump’s interview with the Teamsters in January, one campaign staffer said he already had the endorsement of the Teamsters’ membership, and that it was a win just to get an interview. Palmer believes there’s not been enough education from the Teamsters leadership explaining policy differences between Biden and Trump, such as in National Labor Relations Board appointments and Biden’s signing into law the Butch-Lewis Act, which saved some member pensions. The board member also acknowledged that an endorsement does not necessarily dictate how rank-and-file members will vote.
CHICAGO SCHOOL SPENDING NEARLY DOUBLES AS SCORES DROP
July 16, 2024 // Still, CTU seems oblivious as it pushes $1.7 billion in demands for new support staff that will give them more union members – part of at least $10.2 billion in new demands – rather than prioritizing students’ outcomes. This, in a school district that just cut enough to close a $500 million deficit. Expect that deficit to reappear with a vengeance if CTU gets even a fraction of its demands. Expect taxpayers to eventually pay for that deficit.
CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION GIVES NEARLY $1.3M TO SITTING ILLINOIS LAWMAKERS
June 10, 2024 // Since 2010, CTU has funded the political committees of 84 of 177 lawmakers currently in the Illinois General Assembly. When you look at just Democrats, it is 72% – nearly half from outside Chicago. Nearly half of current Illinois state lawmakers have received money from the Chicago Teachers Union – with nearly half of them from outside Chicago. When you look at just Democrats, it’s nearly 3 of 4 sitting lawmakers who’ve received CTU cash.
COMMENTARY Chicago Teachers Union: An Example in Corruption
May 29, 2024 // The scandals didn’t end in 2023, regrettably. An ethics complaint filed in 2024 over a “leaked email detailing a plan to help students vote” violated the CPS Code of Ethics, according to the Illinois Policy Institute, which filed the complaint. To be fair, CPS officials aren’t barred from engaging in some political activities. They cannot, however, conduct such activities during working hours. The Illinois Policy Institute claims the email shows “the union is asking its members to violate the CPS Code of Ethics and possibly other state or city provisions.” In fact, while writing this article, another shocking revelation came out about the Chicago Public Schools system. A former student is suing the CPS, alleging that a dean there raped her at the age of 15 and then posed as her stepfather to get her two abortions, and the staff failed to report it. I need to stop writing before another scandal comes out, or I’ll have to add that, too.
CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION CUTS CLASS TO LOBBY, COSTING TAXPAYERS UP TO $141K
May 17, 2024 // Teachers can partake in political advocacy on their own time, but this day of action occurred during regular school hours and at taxpayer expense. It doesn’t help that most of the students they left behind are unable to read or do math at grade level, and could have benefitted from a normal day of instruction. Chicago Public Schools has seen steady budget growth combined with dwindling enrollment. CPS’ per-pupil operational spending is $24,132, up more than 50% from $15,878 in 2018. CTU held a similar event with students during the March 19 primary election when they took students out of class to hear from proponents of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s real estate transfer tax hike, were told how to vote and then marched to the polls. The tax hike failed.
Citing ‘burnout,’ doctors with ChristianaCare file papers to form system’s first labor union
May 15, 2024 // The petition, which only required a 30% vote, was delivered to the NLRB office in Philadelphia late Tuesday. The union would be the first in the 136-year history of ChristianaCare, Delaware’s largest private employer with about 11,600 staff members. Should the doctors elect to form a union, the next step would be collective bargaining on a contract to address duties, wages and other issues.
EDITORIAL: CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION LEADERS FLIP-FLOP ON TAXPAYER-FUNDED STADIUMS
May 2, 2024 // Chicago Teachers Union leadership opposed publicly funded stadiums in 2013. That’s changed: Chicago’s mayor is pushing a Bears football stadium deal needing billions in tax subsidies. And his pals in CTU leadership have yet to speak out about it.