CTU Shadow PAC Pushes Pritzker To 'Intervene' In CPS Stalemate

CHICAGO — No matter how many times Chicago Teachers Union leaders get exposed as eternally angling for bargaining power to push a political agenda, they just won't quit.

The latest example came Monday night. Mayor Lori Lightfoot declared a 48-hour "cooling-off period" following a successful day of negotiations with the CTU over the return to in-person learning, saying there's hope contentious talks end with a deal. On Twitter, the union agreed.

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A few hours later, though, a group led by firebrand CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates started to turn up the heat on Gov. J.B. Pritzker to intervene in the stalemate by giving the union authority to demand negotiations on remote learning — which would clear the way for a strike that current state law doesn't allow. All he has to do is sign House Bill 2275, which has cleared the state legislature but not made it to his desk, yet.

The unsolicited text message came from "Elliot" with United Working Families, which lists Davis Gates as its leadership "chair," on its website.

"We are fighting for #SafeReturnOrNoReturn because the school reopening plan Mayor Lightfoot and CPS have laid out is unsafe and will create a greater crisis for Black and Brown students and families who have been hit hardest by this deadly pandemic. Now, we need the Illinois General Assembly and Governor J.B. Pritzker to intervene. Will you urge your Illinois legislator to avert a strike or more lockouts by signing [House Bill] 2275 into law?" the text message read.

House Bill 2275, which was approved by the state House and Senate, specifically gives the Chicago Teachers Union the legal authority to negotiate and go on strike over working conditions, including classroom size, the length of the school day and — depending on which lawyer you ask — where they work, as in remotely or in-person.

Under the current state law, CTU's protest of in-person learning isn't subject to collective bargaining. For that, walking picket lines over that dispute could be considered an "illegal strike" and likely would have legal consequences for the union and its members.

Make no mistake, Pritzker's signature on House Bill 2275 eliminates those consequences, and probably makes a teachers strike even more likely than it already is.

CTU boss Jesse Sharkey says he'd prefer reaching a deal than sending teachers out on strike. Lightfoot says she agrees. They've each toned down their heated public rhetoric. And this week, the mayor backed off her threat to lockout teachers from remote-learning.

So, why would the Davis Gates-led United Working Families make a secret robotext push for gubernatorial intervention just hours after the union's harsh social media rhetoric had taken a subdued tone after "positive day of bargaining" that appeared to make progress toward a deal?

I reached out to Davis Gates through a CTU spokeswoman, who characteristically did not reply.

Pritzker's spokeswoman also didn't respond to questions about whether the governor would sign HB 2275, while Lightfoot and CTU remain deadlocked over in-person learning.

So, I called state Sen. Bill Cunningham (D-Chicago), who pushed HB 2275 through the senate during the lame duck session, to get a sense of whether Pritzker would get the chance to willingly entangle himself in the public schools' standoff with CTU.

Cunningham, who represents a district heavily populated by current and retired teachers and police officers, seemed like an odd supporter for a change that would give more power to a union that used the pandemic to actively bargain to "defund police."

Still, Cunningham said he stands behind restoring bargaining rights afforded to smaller teachers unions in the state that were taken away when former Mayor Richard M. Daley took over the school system in 1995.

But the state senator said the bill awaiting the governor's signature wasn't intended to have anything to do with the Chicago Public Schools' standoff with CTU over in-person learning.

"The bill is immaterial of this. It has not been signed. It's not on the governor's desk, yet," Cunningham said. "The law has not changed. It's immaterial."

Well, the Monday night robotext suggests United Working Families — which is partially funded by $276,000 of taxpayer-funded teacher union dues funneled through the CTU's own political action committee — must think there's still hope Pritzker might plug the legal issue that remains a speed bump to a teacher walkout without his signature.

The one thing that faithful Patch readers have learned about the CTU's bargaining style is that what the union leaders say they're fighting for isn't the whole story.

They never mention their demand for hazard pay to teachers who voluntarily taught online lessons from empty classrooms. More recently, the CTU bargaining unit argued "rent abatement" and a move to "defund police" were among the things needed to make city public schools safer for in-person learning. And then there's the executive board member who tweeted fearmongering coronavirus propaganda while vacationing in Puerto Rico for the holidays.

That's why it wouldn't be shocking if Sharkey was slow-walking a deal with Lightfoot while Davis Gates fired up the political action committee to quietly work angles in Springfield.

After all, United Working Families was formed to build a "political organization," according to the group's bylaws.

With Davis Gates as chairwoman, UWF political action committee is engaged in a "serious party-building effort" that "recruits, develops and runs" candidates and organizes to fight for "working people's political power."

In addition to getting bankrolled by the CTU dues, United Working Families' top donors include the SEIU Healthcare political action committee, the Cook County College Teachers Union and U.S. Rep. Chuy Garcia. Sharkey even kicked in about $1,000 of his own money, public records show.

Maybe it will work. After all, United Working Families has a connection to Pritzker, too.

Davis Gates' group provided about $20,000 of in-kind donations to Vote Yes For Fair Tax, the political action committee the governor funded with more than $56 million of his own money in a failed attempt to convince voters to support changes to the state income tax code.

Whatever happens, consider this a remote-learning lesson: There's no cooling down period long enough for a political party posing as a union that loves to strike as much as CTU.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series, "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN, and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots."

More from Mark Konkol:

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• Chicago Teachers Union Strike Threat Just Another Power Play
• Former Top Cop Eddie Johnson's Cop Out Has Ring of Untruth
• Why Must We Pretend Pritzker Pandemic Metrics Aren't Meaningless?
• It's Time For Chicago's Mayor To Go It Alone On Pandemic Policy