After that we looked out for them, she says. 1973: Two strikes, of 12 and 11 days, yield improved salary, benefits, preparation time, supplies, and class sizes. In fall 2019, she helped lead a 15-day strike and negotiate a 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. [29] [30] In 2015, donations to the CTU PAC amounted to over $1.5 million, and the CTU PAC spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of Cook County Commissioner Jesus Garcia (D), who ran against incumbent Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D). God Bless. Stacy Davis Gates, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, speaks in Chicago, Dec. 9, 2018. Stacy Davis Gates, the incumbent vice president, led CORE's slate and will take over as president with her running mate Jackson Potter for a three-year term beginning July 1. She made it OK to be powerful, curious, and vulnerable all at the same time.. In fact, it irks her that theres an expectation that she and Lightfoot should get along because theyre both Black women. Three years ago, TEAM Englewood closed as well. Davis Gates is currently on leave from the classroom, where she taught high school social studies for over a decade at Englewood and Clemente High Schools and Mason Community Links High School. Accessed June 01, 2020. In addition, CTU PAC donated $1.2 million to candidates and political organizations. But she would later learn that it wasnt always so level upstream. [20], In 2020, the Chicago Teachers Union filed a lawsuit against Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, as well as the U.S. Department of Education and the Chicago Board of Education, claiming that new special education regulations imposed an impossible burden on the teachers during the coronavirus pandemic. She was actually in sixth grade, Gates later clarifies. 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. Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Stacy Davis Gates speaks as the CTU and the local school council held a news conference on Sept. 28, 2021, outside Jensen Elementary School in North Lawndale. Jackson Potter is the Vice President of the Chicago Teachers Union. Chicago magazine newsletters have you covered. Shes also extremely sensitive. I love you.. 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. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Konkol, Mark, CTU Boss Talks Like Working Man, Lives Like Wealthiest 1 Percent, Patch Chicago, August 27, 2019. But the union's vice president, Stacy Davis Gates, said teachers are dealing with "severe staffing shortages" and a lack of mitigation measures against Covid-19. Her maternal grandmother left Arkansas, worked on the West Side of Chicago, and wound her way to South Bend. Even as a sixth grader, it bugged herjust as the injustice and tragedy she sees now motivate her. Accessed June 02. Dont be compelled to turn around and walk backwards in the time of need. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. I think thats an achievement, that we are all free to have differing thought processes on anything, and that women have voice in a city as dynamic as Chicago. It seems pretty dangerous. She and her students attended the community meetings that were part of the school-closing process. The CTU is no small thing. What are the benefits of believing in God? I need you to be even more in love with equity and justice. Paraprofessionals & school-related personnel, Standing united to protect immigrant rights, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), Safe and welcoming public schools for all, AFT resources for organizing and back to school programs. Gateswho had stepped away from the classroom in 2011 to ramp up her union activities, traveling to Springfield to lobby for the CTUs legislative agenda and serving as the organizations political directorwas elected to fill his post. She graduated from John Marshall High School and proudly serves on the schools alumni committee. Our union couldnt be silent on what was happening to the children in the city, the families in the city.. So I want to say this: We are fighters at this union. Before Sharkeys announcement, Gatess name also had been brought up as a possible contender. It felt familiar, she says, especially because I was teaching African American history that year. And there was always a segment of my class that was disconnected, that didnt want to hear it or didnt engage fully.. It was the final day of Black History Month and Stacy Davis Gates needed to be in three places at once. [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. When the . 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. 1)Frederick Douglass, Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight, 2)When they call you a terrorist, a black lives matter memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors & Asha Bandele, foreword by Angela Y. Davis, 3)How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates. A union member made it for her. Jesse Sharkey, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, will step down at the end of his term this summer after two tumultuous decades of involvement in union leadership that saw the organization become a political powerhouse. For more than 75 years the Chicago Teachers Union has fought for the schools Chicagos students deserve. Accessed June 01, 2010. She has raised millions of dollars to elect classroom teachers to all levels of local government, and challenge school privatizers and union busters. Min. Yet they remain a part of Gates. As for politics, Gates says shes not sure shes cut out for it. At the national level, Christel has worked on the PSRP Professional Problems Committee for the American Federation of Teachers and was a member of its Summer Organizing Institute in Houston, Texas. Stacy can be contacted at [emailprotected]. The school went through three principals her first year. Davis Gates has also spearheaded statewide legislative campaigns to pass the strongest charter school accountability measures in the country, push for the restoration of the bargaining rights of Chicago Public Schools employees and fully fund public education by ending tax loopholes for the 1 percent. Her detractors blame her for contributing to a contentious relationship between the CTU and the mayor that resulted in an 11-school-day teachers strike in October 2019the longest in decades. They remain on strike. Accessed June 01, 2020. Photographs and illustrations, as well as text, cannot be used without permission from the AFT. When my members hear how much I love them, they hear Laura., Shes loath to squander the opportunities they provided her. As a speech-language pathologist, she served as an executive board elementary functional vice president and Big Bargaining Team member. 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. In 2017, Ms. Davis Gates was elected Chair of United Working Families, an independent political organization by and for working-class people and our movements. It was like a family. (Lewis died in 2021.) In what era has it ever been ethical, moral or vogue to close schools in poor, under-resourced blackcommunities and fire experienced, dedicated school personnel,and then try to justify those decisions by claiming budgetshortfalls on unwieldy retiree pay..Chicagos Mayor RahmEmanuel has abdicated his responsibility as chief executive of thecity and made it a practice to scapegoat his wrong-headedpolicies on the most vulnerable populations in the city. Preckwinkle lost to Lori Lightfoot (D). CTU also retained Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin (D) as a consultant, paying him $106,000, in addition to his own $85,000 county salary. It makes you angry. 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. Salary Constraint Annual Dues; Members other than Paraprofessional: $57,869* or more: Between $46,439* and $57,869* 1% of salary. It was simple: Someone did something wrong, there was an investigation and they always got the wrong guy, and Perry always got them off. While at the CTU, Davis Gates has been the architect of bold political and legislative campaigns for the schools and city that all Chicagoans deserve. We dont walk backwards and pretend that yesterday was better than what we can imagine tomorrow to be. She says there were fights every day on the corner of Western and Division. Sharkey taught at Chicago Vocational Career Academy (CVCA). West Ridge YMCA receives $3.75 million in U.S. funds for renovations, possible reopening U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky helped secure funds for the High Ridge YMCA, which is now being used to house migrants, two years after the facility was closed to the public. Sharkey was first elected vice president in 2010, when Karen Lewis was elected CTUs president. (When asked about it on the Crains Chicago Business podcast A.D. Q&A in January, Gates said that the notion of her running was something she first heard from Lightfoots lips and was not a priority for her. Its a high bar. the Chicago Teachers Union So have their teachers. ), My counsel to her is One thing at a time, Sharkey says. When the school closed in 2008, Gates moved to Roberto Clemente Community Academy in Ukrainian Village, a high school that had been tasked with absorbing students reassigned from Austin Community Academy High School, which was shuttered in 2007. Chicago Tribune, August 20, 2019. More change is coming in May, when the CTU selects its next leader. 2 was swinging the hammer, appearing before the cameras with the unwavering narrative that the well-being of students was the unions single overriding concern. I am not a union member nor am I a teacher but if you knocked on my door with that speech, I would start paying Chicago Teachers Union dues. Occupation: Vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union. Stacy Davis Gates EDITOR'S NOTE, OCTOBER 30, 2019: The profile below was first published on August 2, 2019. Belsha, Kalyn, Chicago teachers union leaders back Sanders, becoming latest to offer personal endorsements as unions tread carefully, Chalkbeat, March 04, 2020. [9] It would not rejoin the AFT until 1937, when the Chicago Teacher Federation and various other Chicago teacher organizations consolidated to create the Chicago Teachers Union, which once again joined the American Federation of Teachers as Local 1. Shouts of Talk, Stacy! filled the room. Accessed June 01, 2020. (Current CEO Pedro Martinez, in office since September, didnt respond to requests for an interview for this story.) [5], In the 2019 negotiation with Chicago, the CTUs key negotiating goals were the duration of the contract, increased support staff (including elimination of privatized nurses), reduced class sizes, increased compensation and benefits, and job security protections, including limiting some teacher evaluations and Principal authority over grading practices. My granny was a teenage mothera teenage single mother with an alcoholic father who was a sharecropper. In 2020, the city was running an $838 million budget deficit, and Chicago's school system bonds have been rated below investment-grade in recent years. In response, CTU blamed a Koch-funded law project, called the lawsuit anti-worker, and argued that, by only allowing members to revoke their dues authorizations in August, they were operating within the letter of the law. [22], In addition to its status as Local 1 of the American Federation of Teachers, CTU is also a member of other left-wing labor groups, including the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL), the Illinois State Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (ISFL-CIO), the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT). You need to run for public office. I didnt know what I was doing. The E Board directs the work of the officers, sets the agenda for the House of Delegates, and makes decisions in emergencies. She is also the Executive Vice President of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and an Executive Vice President of the American Federation of Teachers. I was angry. 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. Widely known as the firebrand counterpart to wonky union head Jesse Sharkey and viewed by some as at least as powerful among the rank and file this former CPS teacher gained a reputation for backing down to no one, not even Mayor Lightfoot, who reportedly resorted to barring her from final negotiations. Teachers strikes are not new to this city. And also really scared. [1] Grossman, Ron, As Chicago teachers vote to authorize a strike, a look back at the citys labor history, Chicago Tribune, September 27, 2019. She imagined her students voices landing on the ears of the decision makers the way Charlie Browns teachers words sounded to the Peanuts classroom. From 1969 to 1987, CTU staged nine walkouts, according to the Chicago Tribune. Lolly Voss, I heard you for the first time on 820am in Chicago, youre the voice that the children of Chicago NEED. We sat at a table debating ventilation during an airborne pandemic. 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