Members of the Chicago Academics Union reelected Stacy Davis Gates and her crew Friday, persevering with the 15-year-run of the management group credited with putting in town’s present mayor and for help of beyond-the-classroom social justice points.
With one challenger, Gates’ Caucus of Rank-and-file Educators, or CORE, received with 64% of the vote, in accordance with the CTU. It’s higher than CORE carried out within the final election, when it had two opponents, however not a blowout as some had predicted. The CTU didn’t say what number of members had voted.
CORE credited the victory with the overwhelmingly sturdy help for the contract deal it lately reached with out having to strike or take a strike vote.
In a press launch, Gates and her crew pointed to a number of contract wins, together with raises particularly for veteran lecturers, class dimension limits and guarantees so as to add employees, together with extra librarians and lecturers for English Language Learners.
The following steps, the union leaders mentioned, are to implement the contract and to battle in opposition to what they see as assaults by the Trump administration on Black, Latino, immigrants and LBGTQ college students.
“We are going to proceed to construct the strongest drive discipline round our college students, our members, our college communities, our metropolis and our union,” the CTU management wrote within the press launch. “The best safety in opposition to assaults — whether or not it’s from an out-of-line administrator or an out-of-line president — is one another.”
The opposition group — Respect, Educate, Advocate, Lead or REAL — supported most of the similar social justice points as CORE, however promised to place extra emphasis on bread-and-butter points, reminiscent of wage and trainer complaints. Many REAL members are disgruntled former CORE members.
REAL hoped to capitalize on the vulnerabilities of CORE going into this election, together with that polls recommend low in style help for CTU and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
CTU was within the crosshairs of a nasty battle between the mayor’s workplace and CPS’ administration over methods to cope with the varsity district’s funds deficit. And in the course of the negotiations, it obtained into a serious disagreement with SEIU Native 73, a sister union that shares the identical progressive agenda — a transfer that REAL denounced.
REAL candidates additionally criticized CORE for a scarcity of transparency and an unwillingness to hearken to dissent. REAL additionally took up a name by a extra conservative group of lecturers for CTU to launch monetary audits.
Sarah Karp covers training for WBEZ. Observe her on X @WBEZeducation and @sskedreporter.
