In an escalation of an ongoing turf war over low-wage school district employees, the Chicago Teachers Union has accused the Chicago Board of Education of conspiring with a rival union to undermine its bargaining unit.
The allegation is the latest example of ongoing acrimony between the two once-allied progressive labor unions, a fracture with major implications for city politics and for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. Local 73 of the Service Employees International Union called the accusation of conspiring with the boss “unfortunate, baseless, and unsupported by any evidence” and said its goal was only to improve the wages and working conditions of the workers.
A spokesperson for CPS said that the district is “committed to transparent, good-faith cooperation with all our labor partners” and officials “unequivocally deny any allegation to the contrary.”
In November, SEIU Local 73 filed a petition to represent 1,600 so-called “miscellaneous” school workers throughout the district. But the CTU contended that some of those workers are rightfully theirs, misclassified by the district under a vague job title.
Chicago Public Schools initially argued that the “miscellaneous” workers weren’t eligible to unionize at all — arguing in a Christmas Eve filing that the workers should not be allowed to join SEIU for a variety of reasons, including their unpredictable schedules and lack of benefits.
Both SEIU and CTU allege that the district takes advantage of the “miscellaneous” staff by assigning them to perform union work but for less pay and no benefits.
But earlier this month the school district withdrew its objection to SEIU’s petition, paving the way for the miscellaneous workers to join Local 73. The reversal came weeks after the majority of the school board — including some members backed by CTU and Johnson — wrote to district management, urging them to respect the workers’ right to organize and “move the process forward without the current delays,” according to a letter obtained by the Tribune.
Shortly thereafter, CTU filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board in which it asked officials to delay action on SEIU’s petition.
In the filing, CTU argued that the school district has long misclassified miscellaneous workers who do jobs, like teacher assistants or school clerks, covered by CTU’s collective bargaining agreement, citing a history of grievances over the issue dating back to 2011. The union said specifically it had identified more than 130 “miscellaneous” staff members listed under job titles in the CTU bargaining unit on their schools’ websites.
“This is a widespread problem that CPS has been either willfully engaging in and creating, or turning a blind eye to,” said Thad Goodchild, CTU’s deputy general counsel.
In the filing, CTU also alleged the district’s withdrawal of its opposition to SEIU Local 73’s petition suggested the district and SEIU had “conspired to undermine the CTU bargaining unit,” saying that CPS only withdrew its objections after CTU had sought to participate in the case between SEIU and the district.
The CTU also argued that the district may have withdrawn its objection because it wants to keep using the “miscellaneous” classification “as an ill-defined catchall convenient for evading the requirement of its labor contracts” and “may have reason to believe Local 73 is willing to go along with that project if it gets some additional members out of the deal.”
SEIU Local 73 vehemently denied the allegations in a statement to the Tribune, calling them “baseless.” The union said that a group of miscellaneous workers had first reached out to the union a year ago. Since then, Local 73 said, it had met with hundreds of miscellaneous workers and won the support of more than 70% of their number.
“The time that Local 73 spent meeting with and organizing these workers had nothing to do with any other labor organization,” SEIU said.
“From the beginning, our goal has been to secure low wage workers representation and access to a better life. We desire only to win fair wages, benefits, and better working conditions for these employees,” the union’s statement read. “In the future, we hope that we can work together with our fellow CPS unions to advance the rights of all CPS workers.”
SEIU described CTU’s filing as “expressly an attempt to block” its representation petition but said it was “confident” the miscellaneous workers would eventually join their bargaining unit.
When the Tribune asked Goodchild, the CTU lawyer, if the teachers union had any evidence of a conspiracy between SEIU and the district, he pointed to the approximately 130 miscellaneous workers he said the union had determined to be misclassified workers who should be in the CTU’s bargaining unit.
“I’m not going to say that their entire motivation is to erode the CTU bargaining unit,” Goodchild said of SEIU’s bid to represent the workers. “But to the extent that, you know, it is undeniable that there are a very large number of folks in the miscellaneous employee classification who are clearly doing work covered by our contract … It’s hard to believe that any of the other parties interested in this situation are unaware of those facts.”
When asked if the union suspected anyone at the Board of Education specifically of conspiring with SEIU, Goodchild said, “I can’t speak to that.”
“The decision makers over there are who they are,” he said. “I think that the evidence and sequence of events speaks for itself.”
A spokesperson for the school district said CPS withdrew its opposition to SEIU’s petition after determining that doing so was the right step for the miscellaneous workers, and the district denies any allegations of collusion.
The district will evaluate individual cases identified by CTU, according to the spokesperson.
“The ‘miscellaneous’ category is used to address specific, evolving needs within individual schools that may not fall under traditional headers,” the spokesperson said. “The District will continue to negotiate in good faith with both SEIU Local 73 and the CTU, and will continue to use established legal and contractual channels to resolve any disagreements regarding employee placements.”
CTU represents roughly 30,000 workers across CPS, most of them teachers. Local 73, meanwhile, represents about 13,000 support staff in the school district, including security officers and bus aides.
Tensions between the once-allied unions has its roots in a previous dispute over special education jobs in the district. In 2024, SEIU accused the teachers union of advancing a contract proposal it said would effectively take jobs away from SEIU — a characterization CTU denied.
CTU ultimately ratified a contract without the proposal, but not before SEIU threatened to sue CPS over the issue and then passed a statewide resolution declaring itself “under attack” by the teachers union.
The two politically powerful labor unions helped propel Johnson, a former CTU organizer and the self-styled “most pro-worker mayor” into office, and the labor fight has the potential to jeopardize his political firepower.
A labor-focused board
The dispute is unfolding as CPS transitions to a fully-elected school board. What was once a 7-member, mayoral-appointed board generally aligned with district leadership is now a 21-member hybrid body.
Many of the new appointees and elected members are former community organizers or educators, with deep ties to progressive labor movements, now accountable to newly drawn constituencies across the city.
A majority of the school board — 9 elected members, and two appointed by Johnson — wrote to district management shortly after SEIU filed its petition, to “express (their) strong support for the fundamental right of CPS employees to organize,” according to a letter obtained by the Tribune.
The letter, addressed to CPS CEO Macquline King and district leadership, did not name either union. It is dated Dec. 18, before the district first filed and later withdrew its objection, but reflects the emerging priorities shaping the board’s new era of governance.
“We are very concerned by reports that CPS miscellaneous employees who are seeking to unionize are dealing with unnecessary legal objections and procedural barriers from CPS designed to stall their right to organize,” board members wrote.
The letter was signed by elected members Yesenia Lopez, District 7B; Carlos Rivas, District 3B; Ellen Rosenfeld, District 4B; Jessica Biggs, District 6B; Therese Boyle, District 9B; Jenny Custer, District 1B; Che “Rhymefest” Smith, District 10A; Angel Gutierrez, District 8A; and Ebony DeBerry, District 2A.
It was also signed by appointed members Cydney Wallace, District 8B, and Norma Sierra Ríos, District 3A. The remaining members who did not add their names typically align themselves with Johnson and CTU.
“Allowing the union recognition process to proceed as intended is consistent with both the law and the values of dignity and respect for working people,” they wrote. “Honoring our employees’ rights means that workers can make their choice freely and fairly, without interference or intimidation.”