Posts tagged Chicago
PODCAST: The Chicago Teachers Union and Their Path to Dictatorship | The New Frontline with Siena Rose
January 14, 2026 // This episode exposes the inherent corruption and political overreach of government unions as Siena dives into the latest controversy surrounding the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and their support for a Venezuela protest organized by socialist groups. Along with former NJEA President Sean Spiller's controversial campaign for NEA President and a new California tax proposal targeting billionaires, backed by the SEIU.
Chicago Public Schools spends a lot on empty desks
January 14, 2026 // CPS can do little to solve the problem as long as the Chicago Teachers Union forces it to keep these nearly empty schools open. CTU’s contract dictates the district not close schools, preferring high costs to house a few students to efficient use of resources and taxes that could better educate the children at those empty schools. While CPS enrollment continues to decline, taxpayers are on the hook for larger and larger district budgets each year to educate fewer and fewer students. Property taxes just jumped $25 million and rose 62% in 15 years thanks to the district’s ballooning spending.
Illinois State University Student Support Professionals File for Unionization with UPI Amid Concerns Over Work Conditions
December 30, 2025 // The unionization effort, if certified by the IELRB, will empower them to formally bargain for their first contract with ISU's administration, striving for equitable remuneration and improved working conditions.
Union Bosses Admit They Spent $1.8 Billion on Politics in the 2024 Election Cycle — The Real Number is Likely Over $28 Billion
December 19, 2025 // It is nearly impossible to produce perfectly accurate figures from the LM-2 because subsidiary unions file separate forms from the larger national unions they fall under, and transactions between these unions could be listed multiple times in the data. This only worsens the problems of inconsistent and potentially inaccurate reporting mentioned above. The LM-2 does not lend itself to a precise analysis of union boss spending, but it does give a sense of its scale. When sympathetic media outlets report unions’ political influence in the tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars that is a dramatic underrepresentation.
Unionization Wave Hits Nonprofit Sector
December 17, 2025 // ASeveral key economic factors are driving this current union organizing trend, including inflation and job security. In this environment, employees are motivated to seek the protections that higher pay and increased benefits offer. However, about one-third of nonprofit museums and cultural institutions are also struggling to confront the loss of government grants or contracts. More than half of museums reported fewer 2025 visitors than in 2019, according to a Novemberreport by the American Alliance of Museums. In spite of these conflicting economic difficulties, employees are continuing to push back, feeling that they have been taken for granted for many years. Bottom line: unions continue to seek out new groups of workers to organize as their traditional targets, such as manufacturing and production jobs, wane or move overseas. Nonprofit employers would be well advised to stay engaged with their employees, keep an eye on employee morale, and look for ways to reward employees' hard work even when funds are scarce.
Border Agents ‘Interrogated’ Striking Workers In Chicago, Teamsters Say
December 17, 2025 // Coronado said the Mauser workers had been trying to negotiate immigration-related protections in their next contract, including a stipulation that the company would not allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on the property unless they had a judicial warrant.
Workers at more Chicago cultural venues are unionizing, even during a precarious moment for museums
December 12, 2025 // Still, the process of unionization may not be smooth at every site. At Chicago Botanic Garden, there’s a disagreement between workers and management with what steps should be required to establish a union. Employees who are advocating for better pay, health care and safety on the job and are represented by CMRJB Workers United say they are asking employees to sign union cards. However, Chicago Botanic Garden leadership opposes that approach in favor of a secret ballot election to vote on the union. “To skip that step would really be disenfranchising those eligible employees,” Chicago Botanic Garden President and CEO Jean Franczyk told the Chicago Sun-Times. “The process has multiple steps and options that you can pursue. But the one that we think protects individual eligible workers’ rights is that supervised election.”
Union activity at Chicago Botanic Garden heats up
December 11, 2025 // She also wrote that the garden respects employees’ rights “to support, or not support” union representation, but the nonprofit organization disagrees with the suggestion for “card check neutrality” and issued support for a secret-ballot process. “Federal labor law establishes a process for employees to exercise their rights by making their choice for or against representation in a secret ballot election administered and supervised by the National Labor Relations Board,” Franczyk wrote. “Embracing ‘card check neutrality’ would eliminate the opportunity for employees to vote in a secret election.”
‘Fracture’ in Chicago’s labor world complicates Mayor Brandon Johnson’s third budget fight
November 25, 2025 // That’s the signature hue of the Service Employees International Union, whose local affiliates were Johnson’s second-biggest labor backer in his 2023 election. Instead, the self-styled “most pro-worker mayor” in Chicago’s history has only seen one union vociferously cheer his $16.6 billion proposal, despite his hard line against layoffs: the red-shirted Chicago Teachers Union. It’s a sign of the times after a “fissure” between the once-close SEIU and CTU has grown into a full-blown “fracture,” said Ald. Desmon Yancy, a freshman progressive who previously served in SEIU leadership.
Cook Board president, officials back efforts to unionize at Chicago Botanic Garden
November 20, 2025 // But Garden officials said in a statement following Preckwinkle’s press conference that they will not agree to card-check neutrality and instead want to engage in a more formal process. “Federal labor law establishes a process for employees to exercise their rights in this regard by making their choice for or against representation in a secret ballot election administered and supervised by the National Labor Relations Board,” the statement said. “Were the Garden to recognize a labor union based solely on ‘card check neutrality,’ — i.e., without giving our employees a chance to be informed and have the ability to hold a secret ballot election on the issue — we would, in our view, be depriving our workers of their rights on this important issue.”