Chicago Teachers Union-style political agenda may come to your school district
Teacher contracts expire this year in at least 60 districts represented by the Illinois Federation of Teachers — run by CTU President Stacy Davis Gates.
The militant demands and tactics of the Chicago Teachers Union could soon spread across the state.
Teacher contracts expire this year in at least 60 school districts with educators represented by the Illinois Federation of Teachers.
The IFT and CTU were already inseparable. IFT is the state affiliate of CTU and embraces the tactics CTU uses to try to further its political goals. But the CTU’s control of IFT became more concrete when CTU President Stacy Davis Gates took the reins at IFT as well.
That means CTU’s radical agenda and Davis Gates’ scandal-ridden leadership could infiltrate those 60 districts with expiring contracts.
CTU’s strategy includes “bargaining for the common good.” That’s a euphemism for using contract negotiations to push a political agenda that should be determined in a democratic process, not union contract talks.
Parents and taxpayers in the districts with IFT affiliates should be prepared. CTU — and therefore IFT — demands contracts that are hostile to property taxpayers.
CTU pushes politically motivated ‘bargaining for the common good’
CTU prides itself on demanding social justice and other progressive provisions rather than sticking to typical wage and benefit demands.
Its mission to put politically motivated provisions in its contract is part of a broader movement of “bargaining for the common good,” or using union contract negotiations to tackle issues such as racial justice, climate justice and immigration at the bargaining table rather than in the normal democratic process.
While the CTU initiated the strategy, it didn’t stay isolated to Chicago. After the CTU’s 2012 strike, “union leaders planned town halls in other cities across the country, in New York and Cleveland, San Francisco and Tampa, to spread the new gospel,” Vox wrote. The strike “showed teachers in other places (that) unions could put things on the table that hadn’t been on the table before,” a professor said.
In fact, “bargaining for the common good” has been adopted by the American Federation of Teachers, the national affiliate of IFT and CTU. That means the blueprint has automatically been adopted by the local unions in the 200 districts represented by IFT across Illinois by virtue of their affiliation.
Other districts represented by IFT are at risk of politically motivated contracts
With AFT, IFT and CTU all pushing for radical new provisions in union contracts, the 60 or more IFT districts negotiating contracts in 2026 should be on high alert.
What might these local IFT unions demand? CTU provides extensive examples.
Recent costly and politically motivated CTU demands included “police-free schools,” cash for asylum seekers and carbon neutrality in the district, among others. CTU also demanded and obtained provisions keeping secrets from parents regarding their student’s preferred gender identity.
While other IFT districts may not have seen such demands yet, they should be prepared for the eventual trickle-down effect of this “bargaining for the common good” strategy.