Posts tagged Illinois Federation of Teachers
Chicago teachers’ union claim that Black kids cannot pass standardized tests doesn’t go over well with mom
August 14, 2024 // Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union and executive vice president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, was asked by a Black radio station last week about public school students' declining reading and math scores. Specifically, criticism that Gates was advocating to boost teachers' contracts with money that would be better served addressing student achievement. She responded that gauging student achievement through testing was the problem.
Illinois Federation of Teachers, American Federation of Teachers spend a lot, but not on teachers
August 8, 2024 // The federal filings of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and its national affiliate, the American Federation of Teachers, reveal questionable spending, with little spent on representing teachers, millions spent on politics and deficit spending while the big boss got $500K.
ILLINOIS: Teacher unions backing downstate Republicans ‘very rare,’ says researcher
March 18, 2024 // According to Open Secrets data, the total given to Democrats in the 2021-2022 election cycle from teachers unions' political action committees is over $4 million. Only $24,000 was given to Republicans nationwide. Sarah Bryner, the Open Secrets director of research and strategy, said it’s very rare you’ll see large sums of money going to Republican primary races. "By and large they tend to support people who they [the unions] think understand their causes,” said Bryner. “In an election where the general is at play you will see unions getting involved in [Democrat] primaries because that’s where most of the action is because once you get to the general the Democrats are typically already the winner. Typically you’ll just see them supporting Democrats.”
CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION, AFFILIATES BIGGEST SPENDERS ON CHICAGO POLITICS
December 15, 2023 // Johnson’s deep ties to CTU should worry Chicagoans. Johnson, a former “legislative coordinator” for CTU, will be sitting across the table from his former CTU colleagues when they negotiate a new contract in 2024. Their tight relationship effectively places CTU on both sides of the bargaining table. What’s on the line if he keeps toeing the CTU line? A plethora of expensive contract demands, with taxpayers bearing the costs. Past demands include defunding the police – Johnson himself once said he would cut the Chicago Police budget by at least $150 million – and creating affordable housing. Those potential provisions are not typically negotiated into teachers union contracts, but could be under Johnson’s tenure. And while the union has focused on non-education demands, most students within Chicago Public Schools can’t read or do math at grade level.
CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION SPENDING ON TEACHERS DOWN, POLITICS UP IN 2023
September 29, 2023 // Just 17% of the money spent by the Chicago Teachers Union in 2023 thus far was spent on representing teachers. Meanwhile, they tripled their political spending since 2022. Teachers unions don't represent students, and now they barely represent teachers.
Five Years after Janus, Government Unions Are Weaker — and More Desperate
July 5, 2023 // When SEIU HCII, which operates across four states, is removed from the picture, the overall public-sector-union membership in Illinois has decreased by over 10 percent. These declines are not isolated to a single entity but spread across all public employers, with teachers’ unions such as the Illinois Education Association and Illinois Federation of Teachers losing a combined 9.4 percent of their members or fee-payers. AFSCME Council 31 — the union that represented Janus — has seen an 18.5 percent drop. A significant decrease in union membership is a sign that workers are exercising their Janus freedoms. It also means that $25 million didn’t flow into government-union coffers in 2022. This is a financial blow to a movement that’s accustomed to having huge cash reserves to fund the politicking that gets the union bosses exactly what they want. Such a dramatic shift illustrates how many government workers feel underrepresented by their unions, pushing them to distance themselves from groups now charging more and delivering less. Which points up another consequence of Janus: Government unions are in a fight for their lives. Desperation has made them even more polarizing, extreme, and political — and greedy.
ILLINOIS: EIU faculty, staff union voting on strike after year at bargaining table
February 28, 2023 // The EIU University Professionals of Illinois IFT Local 4100 union, which represents advisors, recruiters, annually contracted faculty, faculty, counselors, and lab coordinators, will vote to authorize a strike on March 8-9 after nearly one year of bargaining and little movement in mediation. The primary issues on the bargaining table are salary and workload demands that directly impact the availability of service to students. The Illinois Federation of Teachers said that a “yes” vote would give the EIU UPI bargaining team the power to file official strike authorization paperwork with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board if no agreement can be made at the bargaining table.
JUST 19% OF CTU’S SPENDING IN 2021 WAS TO REPRESENT TEACHERS
August 26, 2022 // Only $134 of each Chicago Teachers Union member’s dues is actually spent on representing Chicago Public Schools teachers. The rest is spent on other CTU leadership priorities and on the union hierarchy. Representing members is supposed to be a union’s core purpose, but just 19% of the Chicago Teachers Union’s spending in 2021 was on “representational activities.”
Illinois: UNIONS SPEND NEARLY $5M TO PUSH PROPERTY TAX HIKES THROUGH AMENDMENT 1
June 29, 2022 // Illinoisans already suffer under the highest state and local tax burden in the Midwest, thanks to generous contracts and retirements won by powerful public unions from the elected leaders they helped bankroll. If Illinois becomes the only state to enshrine union powers in its constitution, taxpayers will face ever greater demands. progressive tax, fair tax, Mike Madigan, Boeing, Caterpillar, Citadel, constitutional amendment
MORE THAN 38,000 WORKERS HAVE LEFT GOVERNMENT UNIONS IN ILLINOIS
April 15, 2022 // The unions’ own federal reports show 9% of workers have chosen to break away from unions since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME. More than 38,000 state and local government workers across Illinois have chosen not to join or pay a government union since the U.S. Supreme Court restored that right in 2018 in Janus v. AFSCME.