HOD Core Defeat

Delegates Reject CTU Proposal for In Person Meetings

By Jim Vail

The CTU went from refusing to work in the schools due to Covid
to requesting delegates return to in person House of Delegates meetings.
President Jesse Sharkey just announced that he too has Covid.

A majority of the delegates voted against a Chicago Teachers Union proposal to return to in person delegate meetings for the near future.

Two proposals were voted down to go back to in-person meetings. The first one asked if delegates wanted to attend the next March 26 delegates training workshop in person at the CTU headquarters and a simple majority of just over 50 percent said no. The second proposal asked delegates to vote on returning to in-person delegates meetings in April, May and June and a resounding 75 percent voted no.

Several delegates asked why the CTU leadership would push for holding meetings now in person when the union has been leading the fight for safety measures during a pandemic that has killed almost 1 million Americans.

"This would not look good with the media covering our next delegates meeting and see delegates entering the building without masks," one delegated stated.

Many spoke out against the measure because they are immuno-compromised and are therefore still afraid of catching the potentially deadly virus.

The CTU leadership pushed for the proposals by stating they were giving the delegates an option to stay home if they still felt threatened (medically fragile) and that it was important for democracy and union meetings to be in person where people can see each other and understand better what is happening.

As more and more delegates spoke out against the resolutions (one delegate said her voice was shaking with anger), VP Stacy Davis Gates interjected to defend the union's position which was that the proposal was only a test for one meeting and that the executive board voted "unanimously" in favor of the two proposals.

The CTU executive board is mostly under the control of CTU President Jesse Sharkey, similar to the Chicago Board of Education which is under the mayor's control. However, the executive members who almost all represent Core are elected, while the mayor selects her members. That will change soon after the CTU got an elected school board bill passed into law that will begin in 2024.

President Sharkey mentioned that the upcoming delegates elections was also on their mind for arguing for in-person meetings. He said seeing the debates live is much better.

Politics is certainly playing a bigger and bigger role before the May CTU President election.

The CTU led by the Core caucus angered many teachers when they decided to call off the work stop action that the mayor called a strike when the teachers refused to return to the buildings after the winter break as Covid was raging.

It appeared that the union was split - with almost 50 percent of the teachers, clinicians and aides voting against returning to school.

The House of Delegates meetings could be considered the boiling pot of union politics where critics and supporters battle each other out at the microphones to speak for or against resolutions, ask questions and hear officer reports.

A special House of Delegates meeting was called last month after the media reported that there were outside players connected to the mayor who were trying to influence the CTU election. The resolution that passed denounced any outside influences which is against the federal union laws. 

Some saw calling the special meeting a political move to criticize the opposition caucus Members First who were implicated in the scandal. Big business media including the Chicago Tribune are openly calling for the members to elect a new president.

Outside influences on internal union elections is nothing new. Former CTU President Debbie Lynch won a lawsuit against the Chicago Board of Education that allowed all teacher union caucuses the ability to distribute flyers in teachers' mailboxes. The lawsuit benefited Core and the other 4 caucuses who ran in the historic 2010 election. Prior to the ruling, then Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman said only the union had access to the mailboxes. Many believed Huberman under then Mayor Richard Daley preferred UPC to the other caucuses like Core who were demanding an end to the city's privatization of public education.