Chicago Teachers Union demands $50 BILLION more in new contract, including housing for illegal immigrant students

With the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) contract set to expire in June, a leaked contract proposal showed that the union has demanded $50 billion in new spending for wage increases, homeless student housing, housing for illegal immigrant students, and housing assistance for union members. 

The 142-page list of demands was obtained by the Illinois Policy think tank in March. These include the mitigation of an evaluation program called REACH, which the union says "came about because of right-wing forces nation-wide who pushed the false idea that teachers are to blame for all that's wrong in schools."

Illinois Policy details some of the more extreme asks, including "$2,000 per student for asylum seekers: $2,000 for each newcomer student," coverage for "Bariatric surgery and weight-loss drugs," "100% coverage of infertility and abortion," which includes both removal of embryos from wombs and storage of embryos in freezers. "Surrogacy leave" is also demanded, so that faculty who rent women to birth babies may take time off. 

The union demands an allowance for "a day of civic action to assist students who are of age to register to vote and cast votes" to facilitate union and student activism. "LGBTQ+ safe schools, (i.e., keeping parents in the dark)" are also among the demands, with the union proclaiming that teachers must keep students' gender identity secret from parents. "Queer competency" will also be required under the new contract, and ESG pension investments.

"Pronouns: pronouns he/she and his/her changed to “they” and “their” throughout contract," the union demands. Absences "related to verbal assault" would also be compensated for under the new contract.

According to Fox News, the average salary for a Chicago Public School Teacher is $93,182, and the new proposal would increase it to $144,620, double the median household income in the City.

In a speech discussing the proposal, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said, "We are asking you to give us an opportunity to tell our story." She added, "It will cost $50 billion and three cents. Yes it will, and so what, that’s audacity."

"We are asking for substantial amounts of investment into our school community,” Gates said in another speech. 

In a statement about the proposal, Gates said, "I want that money to put the 20,000 homeless students, which are almost 80 percent black, to actually be put in schools." She added, "There's financial assistance for city workers who fight fires and who are in public safety. We would want something very similar." 

Senior director of labor policy at the Illinois Policy Institute, Mailee Smith said the demands "read more like a political agenda than a serious contract intent on supporting teachers’ wages and benefits, and promoting the education of Chicago students." She added, "These demands are far outside the scope of traditional bargaining, putting taxpayer dollars on the line in pursuit of more union power and social activism."

"We are in the process of calculating the cost of these demands, but we can already tell that funding them will require a sweeping overhaul of finances and new revenues," Smith continued. "meaning more and higher taxes for residents. Chicagoans deserve to be represented by a neutral party who is looking out for their finances."

CTU Demands from Illinois Policy