IFT Member Union Under Investigation

Today, the largest member union of the IFT where our President also leads, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), complied with an investigation from the House Education and Workforce Committee.

Instead of investigating the dismantling of the Department. of Education or the withholding of funds to our school districts, the Committee has used its power of checks and balances to go after a local union that is advocating for its students and a quality school day.

What’s the investigation based on? False claims stirred up by none other than the group former President Montgomery warned about in his outgoing reflections, the Illinois Policy Institute.

Almost the entire Illinois Congressional delegation sent a letter to the committee voicing their concern about it being weaponized for partisan politics instead of students and workers’ best interest.

It’s important for all of us at IFT to be aware because this is not about any actual financial issue, this is about the pushback our unions get when we stand up for students and members, challenge the ultra-wealthy to chip in more for our schools, state workers, and services, and promote the public good over billionaire profits.

We invite you to join in what other supporters are doing, posting #HandsOffMyTeachersUnion statements and content to show that Illinois educators and state workers won’t be intimidated, we’ll organize. Always remember, an injury to one is an injury to all!

There’s a great article from the Intercept that puts the investigation in context here, and more details from the Chicago Sun-Times here. We’re sharing more details below adapted from the bulletin CTU sent its members this afternoon.

May you have a restful Martin Luther King Day weekend.  

Thank you for carrying on the legacy of equity, racial justice, and beloved community

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More details on the Congressional investigation:

Here’s what you should know: Union democracy, strong leadership, and a right-wing attack.

• The letter from the Republican-led committee requested five years of audits and related meeting minutes and member requests to review them based on citations exclusively from the anti-worker, anti-public-school group, the Illinois Policy Institute.

• CTU – like the rest of our unions – is a democratic institution. Members elect officers to run the union and elect the executive board and delegates to govern it. Delegates receive monthly financial reports and the executive board provides the highest level of oversight and accountability. That’s what democracy looks like at CTU and what it should look like in our country.

• CTU’s by-laws are even more transparent and require the union to make available audited financial reports to members upon completion.  

• The union has always been in compliance with its by-laws.

• The global pandemic disrupted CTU just like every other institution and it did have a delay in completing those audits at that time.

• When President Davis Gates was elected in 2022, one of her first priorities was modernizing the union’s financial systems, including completing those audits. Under her leadership the union’s assets have increased while its liabilities have gone down significantly. (That’s finance speak for we have stronger systems and are in a stronger position financially today than we were four years ago).

Things that make you go, hmm 🤔: the law firm behind the anti-union Janus decision that regularly pairs up with Moms for Liberty is still suing CTU for its audits. Now Congress and more federal agencies have been weaponized in their pursuit as well. 

1. CTU’s audits have already been made available. In fact, Liberty Justice’s only plaintiff, has already come to the union’s office and reviewed the full audits himself.

2. More detail on the union’s finances is already available in federal findings. The union and its PAC and its sister foundation all report their finances down to the penny in federal filings each year, the LM2 to the Department of Labor, PAC filings, and the foundation’s 990’s. (IPI knows this because they use it every year to spin misinformation about us).

So if the lawsuit and the investigations into the CTU isn’t about transparency, what are they about? Union power and the fact that CTU uses it for their students.

• It’s about the collective power CTU has built together as 30,000 primarily women educators who are now being told our place.

• The billionaire forces behind groups like IPI, LJC, and this current Congress have made it clear they want to terminate the Department of Labor, the Department of Education, collective bargaining rights, and public schooling altogether.

• Our largest member union is being investigated not because there’s a there there. CTU’s being investigated because the union makes improving the education, communities, and lives of Black, Latine, and largely low-income students our first order of business.

  
  

Take action to show that Illinois stands together for our students, members, and communities by posting #HandsOffMyTeachersUnion and planning to join IFT on February 17th for a full funding lobby day.