Campbell, Alexia Fernndez, The 11-day teachers strike in Chicago paid off, Vox, November 01, 2019. Chicago Teachers Union Foundation, About. Sharkey taught at Chicago Vocational Career Academy (CVCA). It was more than, I care about what Im teaching you. It was, I care about you personally., Then, in Gatess second year at Englewood High, CPS announced the school would close after that years freshman class graduated. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. Teachers strikes are not new to this city. Then I started thinking that would put me on the wrong end of the spectrum of justice, she says. So have their teachers. I need you to be even more in love with equity and justice. Press Inquires: Here she addresses the media on last day of the teachers strike on Oct. 31, 2019. Gates and her husband, Kevin, have three childrenin second, fifth, and seventh grades. Blair Paddock | May 24, 2022 8:47 pm. His strongest performance in Chicago came in parts of Mount Greenwood in the 19th Ward, where he garnered nearly 40 percent of the vote. Elizabeth Warren, a presidential candidate at the time, joined teachers on the picket line on a blustery October morning. She showed up to cheer on the football team on Friday nights. Four years later, after undergoing brain surgery, she retired, and Sharkey, her vice president, took over. She remembers Arne Duncan, CPSs CEO at the time, delivering the news at her building. Accessed June 02, 2020. Accessed June 02, 2020. Shouts of Talk, Stacy! filled the room. Net assets declined to less than $1 million. One of the first things she would say to you was What dont I know? It felt like we were set up to take this fall because there were few investments, few supports, and timetables for achievement that they knew we couldnt meet. In the fall of 2019, she helped to lead a 15-day strike and to negotiate an historic contract that provides for smaller class sizes, ensures a nurse and social worker in every Chicago public school, secures sanctuary protections for immigrant families, and supports students and families experiencing homelessness. Accessed June 02, 2020. Lauren FitzPatrick and Nader Issa, Chicago Teachers Union Inc.: How the clout-heavy labor group spends its money, Chicago Sun-Times, January 17, 2020. I tell people all the time Im only one generation separated from a cotton field, Gates says. Accessed June 02, 2020. And in this moment I really and truly feel accountable for their sacrifice. Accessed June 02, 2020. Garcia lost. What We Know and What We Need to Learn, Michigan State University. While at the CTU, Ms. Davis Gates has been the architect of bold political and legislative campaigns for the schools and city that all Chicagoans deserve. When the group first challenged the unions current administration three years ago, Sharkey won reelection handily, with two-thirds of the vote. We, teachers, and other educational personnel in the Chicago Public Schools, being members of the Chicago Teachers Union, do hereby declare this Union to have the following purposes: to protect and improve the services of the public schools as a social agency for developing the capacities of the young and promoting adult education; to promote and guarantee efficient and faithful service from us to the public and to insure to us in return for that service a fair reward and a just security; in accordance with the Agreement between the Board of Education of the City of Chicago and Chicago Teachers Union, to assert, secure, and protect the inherent and fundamental equity in our jobs; as the sole collective bargaining agent for members of the bargaining unit, to establish and maintain orderly and practicable democratic processes in the management of the Chicago public schools, in accordance with the terms of the Agreement; to maintain a relationship of mutual assistance and cooperation with organized labor; to unify the educators of traditional public schools and public charter schools in the City of Chicago, together with other Chicago-area educators that may join with this Union. Accessed June 02, 2020. We see the surveillance and pain in our neighborhoods. Preckwinkle lost to Lori Lightfoot (D). Her maternal grandmother left Arkansas, worked on the West Side of Chicago, and wound her way to South Bend. Really tired. The hallways of Englewood High were lined with photos of notable alums: Harold Ickes, secretary of the interior under Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman; Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., the first African American to be selected as an astronaut; Harold Bradley Sr., who was one of just 13 African American players in the National Football League before World War II; Pulitzer Prizewinning poet Gwendolyn Brooks. The Chicago Teachers Union was established to represent the interest of teachers at Chicago, Illinois schools. While at the CTU, Ms. Davis Gates has been the architect of bold political and legislative campaigns for the schools and city that all Chicagoans deserve. That working parents are needlessly burdened by late-night union votes and canceled classes. Members First is running, in part, on the belief that the union needs to have a better relationship with city officials. Under her leadership, the unions political action fund and member activity in the political and legislative arena has grown significantly. In the absence of a union endorsement, two senior CTU leaders, Jesse Sharkey and Stacy Davis Gates, endorsed the Vermont Senator. Thank You! As a 19-year-old, she says, it wasnt clear to me that injustices are already embedded into our school communitieslarger societal deficits, disinvestments., After college, Gates moved to Chicago, a city that had beckoned and shaped her elders. As an elementary bilingual education teacher, she served as a delegate, district supervisor and strike coordinator. We know how to teach remotely. Lolly Voss, I heard you for the first time on 820am in Chicago, youre the voice that the children of Chicago NEED. Stephanie Simon and James B. Kelleher, Analysis: Striking Chicago teachers take on national education reform, Reuters, September 10, 2012. While a victory for the teachers' union, the concessions came at a significant cost - estimated at about $500 million - to Chicago's already-shaky financial condition. That the work stoppages rob students of crucial instructional time. After her twelve-year career as a classroom educator, Stacy married her political ambitions with her passion for educational advocacy and joined the revitalized Chicago Teachers Union. The couples son is named after his father. Illinois law limits what unions can include as part of a contract negotiation. But the school, like the surrounding neighborhood, had been neglected by city leaders for decades. Neither issue stuck, but the negotiations forced the two sidesand everyone watching themto grapple with how learning and achieving are affected by far more than class size and pedagogy. Davis Gates lives on the South Side of Chicago with her husband and three children. Teacher Unionism, The Labor and Working Class History Association, May 23, 2014. Accessed June 02, 2020. The rhetoric on education reform and pension reform in Chicagois upside down. Accessed June 02, 2020. Chicago Teachers Union Foundation, Grantees List. Chicago Teachers Union, CTU History. May 24, 2022 | Blair Paddock. These are people who represent institutions, and the institutions have conflict, and the conflict is about how resources get spent and whose opinions get to count and how power and money are spent. I can think of no one Id personally like to run the union more, but thats a decision our members get to make., Sharkey, 52, has been floated as a possible mayoral candidate. This year began with the shooting death of 8-year-old Melissa Ortega, a student at Emiliano Zapata Academy in Little Village; the murder of Amanda Alvarez-Calo, a pre-K teacher at Matthew Gallistel Language Academy in East Side; and a shooting outside Alessandro Volta Elementary School in Albany Park that sent it into lockdown. Chicago Teachers Union vice president Stacy Davis Gates talks about the looming vote to decide whether members will work remotely, in opposition to the school district's orders.Subscribe to FOX 32 Chicago: https://www.youtube.com/c/FOX32ChicagoNews?sub_confirmation=1Watch FOX 32 Chicago Live: https://www.fox32chicago.com/liveFOX 32 Chicago delivers breaking news, live events, investigations, politics, entertainment, business news and local stories from Chicago and across the nation.Watch more FOX 32 Chicago on YouTube:FOX 32 Headlines: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2-nR6U1joOT92lWD_QLYoNijiDo9uYaPGood Day Chicago: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2-nR6U1joORm02SSjflpEVzL0ydEqeFuSpecial reports and stories: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2-nR6U1joOTGGgDx9B31HcT9IM60Al0-Download the FOX 32 Chicago News app: https://fox32chicago.onelink.me/KNQ9?pid=social\u0026c=youtube\u0026af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fox32chicago.com%2FappsDownload the FOX 32 Chicago Weather app: https://euklz.app.link/Px4UxyP4PebFollow FOX 32 Chicago on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fox32Chicago/Follow FOX 32 Chicago on Twitter: https://twitter.com/fox32news/Follow FOX 32 Chicago on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fox32news/Subscribe to the FOX 32 Chicago newsletter: https://www.fox32chicago.com/newsletters Stacy Davis Gates Stacy Davis Gates is vice president of the 28,000-member Chicago Teachers Union and a mother of three children in Chicago's public schools. Davis Gates has also spearheaded successful statewide legislative campaigns to pass the strongest charter school accountability measures in the country, to restore the bargaining rights of Chicago Public Schools employees, and to fully fund public education by ending tax loopholes for the 1%. There are lots of ways in which they dont really want to be there, Sharkey says. Stacy can be contacted at [emailprotected]. A union member made it for her. Advertisement. And we have been searching for that matter for centuries. Staff reporter, Teachers Strike Puts Obama In Political Bind, NBC Chicago, September 10, 2012. Please settle up and move on., Says Gates: Im disappointed that in 2022 we still believe that Black people are a monolith and one-dimensional. By her second semester of teaching, Gates started looking for ways to make inroads with her students that had little to do with curriculum. 1973: Two strikes, of 12 and 11 days, yield improved salary, benefits, preparation time, supplies, and class sizes. The auditorium was named for playwright Lorraine Hansberry, who graduated in 1947. Bernie Sanders, also vying for the presidential nomination, attended a CTU rally before the strike. The Chicago Teacher Federation threw itself into political advocacy, organizing behind candidates who were favorable to their goals. Evaluation of New District Teachers Without Tenure. The air crackled with applause. The winning caucus of Rank-and-File Educators, or CORE Caucus, secured 56% of the vote. As a teacher and union delegate at Englewood High School, Jackson fought school closings when former CEO Arne Duncan called the school a culture of failure and started a phase-out in 2005. But, she argues, historical wrongs arent quickly righted. Under famous union leader Margaret Haley (known as the Lady Labor Slugger), the CTF recognized that it needed to persuade political officials to achieve these goals. By the time I got to meet these kids, something would have already happened. So she set her sights upstream: Grab them before theyre thrown into the water, to paraphrase Desmond Tutu, rather than standing downstream to keep pulling them out. Shes on a one-woman kamikaze mission to destroy our public schools. She also called Lightfoot micromanaging and a bad boss in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times and told the New York Times: She does not know how to play well with others., But beneath the tensionindeed, fueling the tensionis a fundamental disagreement over policy. Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Stacy Davis Gates was elected president of the union Friday following a months-long, hard-fought battle against two challengers to succeed outgoing. Christel Williams is a 25-year veteran of Chicago Public Schools, serving as a PSRP delegate, district supervisor, functional vice president and American Federation of Teachers-Illinois Federation of Teachers (AFT-IFT) convention delegate in that time. We are committed to advancing these principles through community engagement, organizing, collective bargaining and political activism, and especially through the work our members do. And it was an early glimpse at the way some kids are placed on a path to succeed, while others are left behind. [10], In 1917, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the Loeb Rule was constitutional, and the CFT and Chicago Board of Education reached a settlement in which the fired teachers were rehired and CFT disaffiliated itself from other labor unions. CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates speaks about parents keeping their CPS students remote until Lightfoot's CPS team provides testing and safety guarantees as teachers, parents and members of the Chicago Teachers Union outside Park Manor Elementary on Jan. 3, 2022. After 12 years as one of the primary faces of the Chicago Teachers Union, Jesse Sharkey is returning to the classroom. I can take off my earrings and get the Vaseline.), Still, the nationally televised conflict early in Lightfoots termwith Democratic heavy hitters siding with the teachersset the stage for the successive years of highly tempestuous dealings. [18], In addition to member-oriented benefits, the CTU also expanded its list of demands during the 2019 teacher strike to include a broader political goal: access to affordable housing. Joshua Cowen and Katharine O. Strunk, How Do Teachers Unions Influence Education Policy? Chicago Tribune, August 20, 2019. From milquetoast to militant is how Jane F. McAlevey described the unions evolution in her 2016 book, No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age. [7], The Chicago Teacher Federation (CTF), a predecessor to the Chicago Teachers Union, was formed in 1897, largely to improve the status and compensation of teachers. My credibility came slowly, and it had nothing to do with my instruction or my understanding of content, she says. Fusco, Chris, The Watchdogs: How Chicago Teachers Union spends its money, Chicago Sun-Times, January 30, 2017. Im going to continue to embody both of their hopes and dreams, but also provide a pathway for the Hazel and the Laura in my household right now, that they get to be whoever they want to be in this world. Later she tells me: I cant advocate on behalf of public education and the children of this city and educators in this city without it taking root in my own household.. For nearly 20 years before becoming president of the teachers union, she was a high school chemistry teacher. However, in 2012, after 9 months of contentious negotiations between CTU, the Chicago School Board, and then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D), who had been actively closing or privatizing failing schools, the CTU went on strike again. Even as a sixth grader, it bugged herjust as the injustice and tragedy she sees now motivate her. As for politics, Gates says shes not sure shes cut out for it. Karen was a curious leader, Gates says. Moran, Theresa, Behind the Chicago Teachers Strike, Labor Notes, September 10, 2012. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. It had to do with finding human connections., Kimbrough was in Gatess first African American history class. I think thats why I go so hard, why Im so clear about my leadership. I have enormous respect for the load Lightfoot and Gates carry, Sive wrote, but were tired, girlfriends. Prior to working on staff at CTU, Sharkey was a social studies teacher and a political activist. [28], The Chicago Teachers Union also operates the CTU PAC, a campaign committee that supports candidates who fight against school reform. The Members First caucus came in with 27%, and the REAL caucus with 17%. Chicago Teachers Union vice president Stacy Davis Gates talks about the looming vote to decide whether members will work remotely, in opposition to the schoo. [31], Between March 2018 and July 2019, just prior to the 2019 teachers strike, the Chicago Teachers Union spent almost $1.5 million on political activities. They would have you to believe that Black lives, queer lives dont matter in this country. It depresses you. We dont win half the things we achieved in 2019 without Stacy, says Jackson Potter, the unions former staff coordinator. 1971: Four-day strike results in salary increases and full health benefits. She has raised millions of dollars to elect classroom teachers to all levels of local government and to challenge school privatizers and union-busters. The Chicago Teachers Union is an organization of educators dedicated to advancing and promoting quality public education, improving teaching and learning conditions, and protecting members rights. Chicago Teachers Union Foundation, Our History. While interest groups on all sides sought Obamas involvement in the negotiation, President Obamas spokesman said that Obama has not expressed any opinion or made any assessment about this particular incident. [16], In 2018, CTU supported the first major strike by charter school teachers in US history. . You are confronted with unparalleled grief., Stacys brilliant, Sharkey says. You are confronted with different children from different households coming inside a school community who are processing rape and violence and trauma in so many different ways. Accessed June 02, 2020. The Chicago Teachers Union has elected a new president: Stacy Davis Gates. She is also the Executive Vice President of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and an Executive Vice President of the American Federation of Teachers. It turned me upside down., In 2005, in Gatess second year teaching at Englewood High, CPS announced the school would close. In 2012, teachers went on strike for seven days. Karen Lewis, a longtime chemistry teacher, was elected to lead the newly reform-minded CTU in 2010. Yet they remain a part of Gates. (That didnt rattle Lewis, who years later told a crowd gathered at the Hideout for an event, I know bad words, too. She sees work stoppages and strikes as the first step and not the last one. And she's not about to let anyone. Stacy says, What about the rest of the kids? Sharkey recounts. This marked a split among teachers union organization leaders, as AFT President Randi Weingarten endorsed Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), while AFT leader Loretta Johnson and New York City teachers union leader Michael Mulgrew endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden. While Chicago officials did not give them everything they demanded, the city did agree to a 16% raise over five years, smaller class sizes and more support staff, including social workers, nurses, librarians, and others. I aint said live yet. Neither side backs down from the fight. Learn more about how easy it is to take the next step and join the IFT! She played in student-staff basketball games. I need you to stay in love with the children in this school district. Item 6 on the CTU mission expresses a purpose of enlarging the CTU by incorporating charter school educators, as well as other Chicago-area educators that may join with this Union. 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