The Service Employees International Union is looking to beef up its ranks within Chicago Public Schools, a development with significant implications for the workers it is looking to organize — and for city politics.
SEIU Local 73 filed a petition to add about 1,600 school-based CPS workers to its ranks with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board on Nov. 10. But the union’s one-time ally, the Chicago Teachers Union, contends that some of those workers rightfully belong to CTU.
The dispute is the latest development in a feud between the two progressive labor unions that has its roots in a turf war over other jobs within the school district.
The two politically powerful labor unions worked together to help elect Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, but have feuded bitterly over the last year.
Both SEIU and CTU say the so-called miscellaneous workers — who work in a wide variety of support roles including as tutors and recess monitors — are poorly paid and receive no benefits. Both unions argue that the workers are sometimes misclassified, filling roles that unionized support staff in either SEIU or CTU also perform, but for less pay and no benefits.
Local 73’s president, however, said an “overwhelming majority” of the miscellaneous workers want to join SEIU.
“After years and years of working with no union protections or collective voice on the job, miscellaneous workers have taken bold action to organize an overwhelming majority of their coworkers to join with SEIU 73,” the local’s president, Dian Palmer, said in a statement.
CTU, meanwhile, maintains that some of the miscellaneous workers are rightfully theirs.
In 2022, the union filed a grievance against the school district, alleging that some of those workers fall within its ranks. The grievance is still pending, CTU says.
The union said that miscellaneous workers are “frequently misused” and asked to fill in for jobs including teachers assistants and school clerks.
“We have long requested that CPS recognize the union as the exclusive bargaining representative of miscellaneous employees performing CTU bargaining unit work,” CTU’s deputy general counsel, Thad Goodchild, said in a statement.
CTU said that it filed an information request with CPS this week for the precise role of each miscellaneous worker.
The teachers union could have also filed a petition to intervene in SEIU’s petition to represent the miscellaneous workers and force an election between the unions. Doing so would have required it to have the support of at least 15% of the workers in question.
No petitions to intervene had been filed in the case, the state labor board confirmed Monday.
CPS could also object to SEIU’s petition to unionize the miscellaneous workers and has until Dec. 8 to do so, according to the labor board. On Tuesday, a representative for the board said no objections had yet been filed in the case.
A spokesperson for CPS said in a statement that the district does not comment on pending litigation, and did not offer further comment on the dispute or SEIU’s petition.
Chicago Board of Education President Sean Harden told the Tribune he was aware of CTU’s grievances, and his priority is that the district “respect all of our workers.” He noted CPS may still need to “hash out” their representation.
“I don’t know that it’s our place to really designate on (which union) they should be,” Harden said. “But ultimately, on whatever side they land on, they should be treated fairly.”
SEIU said it was full steam ahead on bringing the miscellaneous workers into its fold.
“We are committed to bringing these low wage workers, who are barely scraping by, to the bargaining table as soon as possible,” Palmer, of SEIU, said. “We will continue through the legal organizing process.”
In a statement provided through Local 73, miscellaneous worker Elizabeth Espitia of the Frank W. Gunsaulus Scholastic Academy in Brighton Park said she believed a union would “(ensure) that decisions about our working conditions, compensation, and resources are made fairly and transparently.”
Local 73 already represents about 13,000 support staff within CPS, including security officers, bus aides and special education classroom assistants. CTU, meanwhile, represents about 30,000 workers within the district, the majority of whom are teachers.
The fracture between the once-allied unions has its roots in a dispute over special education jobs. Last year, SEIU accused the teachers union of trying to pass a contract proposal that it said would effectively take jobs from SEIU and give them to CTU.
The teachers union pushed back against that characterization, and CTU members ultimately approved a contract without the controversial proposal earlier this year, but not before SEIU threatened to sue the district over CTU’s proposal and then passed a statewide resolution declaring itself “under attack” by the teachers union.
The fractured relationship between the two politically powerful labor organizations, which has manifested in public spats and bullying accusations, has political implications in Chicago.
CTU, for which Johnson once worked as an organizer, is the only major union that has publicly supported the mayor in his challenging third budget fight this fall. SEIU, once a major labor ally of Johnson, has stayed on the sidelines, reducing the mayor’s political firepower as he works to pass a budget that reflects his progressive vision for the city.
Neither union offered further comment on their relationship. CTU instead blamed the district for sowing division.
“We understand that CPS has also misused some miscellaneous employees to serve as school security officers, custodial workers, and other SEIU position titles,” Goodchild, of CTU, said. “Rather than working with its employees’ unions to resolve these issues, CPS managers are deciding to shortchange school staff and opting to attempt to create conflict the CTU is determined to prevent among workers and their unions.”
The teachers union is also looking to add workers to its CPS ranks: In October, CTU filed a petition to organize social and emotional learning specialists. The union did not say how many workers were included in the petition.
Chicago Tribune’s Alice Yin contributed.
