Chicago Teachers Union leaders made nearly $50 million selling property paid for with union member dues, only to shuffle the proceeds to a charity with less oversight. Members are voting May 20 for transparency from new leaders.
A Rockford family and their trucking business are being driven out of Illinois by high taxes and bad public policies. If voters agree Nov. 8 to enshrining public union power in the Illinois Constitution, expect more businesses and workers to leave.
CTU has walked out on students three times in three school years. The outcome of its upcoming leadership election pits the status quo against potential change – and could alter the political trajectory of the nation’s most militant teachers union.
The Illinois Freedom of Information Act requires open access to government union contracts. But Amendment 1 would allow union leaders to override state law to make those contracts secret.
AFSCME union members receive generous salaries and benefits from their state contract, yet union bosses are pushing to enshrine their power in the Illinois Constitution – something no other state has been willing to do.
“CTU wants to keep pushing and striking for demands not even related to education and I don't want the CTU to have any more power to do that. Learning should not be impeded or stopped for the union’s political games.”
Illinois voters will decide Nov. 8 whether to adopt a radical amendment to the Illinois Constitution that would hike taxes and empower special interests. Those are just two of eight reasons why Amendment 1 is bad for Illinoisans.
Amendment 1, billed as a “Workers' Rights Amendment,” actually covers so much more that it violates the U.S. Constitution. Parents and teachers worrying about it emboldening already militant teachers unions are suing to get it off the ballot.
Membership in teachers unions has decreased nearly 10% since 2017, when public educators gained the right to stop handing their pay to unions.
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.
Firefighters in a Chicago suburb won their appeal to remove the Service Employees International Union from their workplace. False claims by SEIU bosses complicated the process.
“Year after year, I had asked the state to stop deducting the dues. I don’t understand why they were still taking my money. I want my money back.”
Amendment 1 would allow government unions to nullify hundreds of Illinois statutes – including laws aimed at protecting school children – simply by contradicting them in union contracts.
The Proviso teachers’ union declared the strike over compensation March 4, canceling classes for the district’s 4,200 students for 8 days so far. The local school board tried to call a time-out to get students back in class, but the union refused.