I was angry. Ms. Stacy Davis Gates is the Political and Legislative Director of the Chicago Teachers Union AFT Local 1. But she didnt play any games. A native of South Bend, Indiana, Gates carried her criminal defense lawyer dreams to St. Marys College, where she declared a major in English. DJN. Compensation for top executives and Board members ranged from $120,000 to $330,000. [18], In addition to member-oriented benefits, the CTU also expanded its list of demands during the 2019 teacher strike to include a broader political goal: access to affordable housing. From 1969 to 1987, CTU staged nine walkouts, according to the Chicago Tribune. It was like a family. Christel, her husband and her three daughters are all graduates of CPS, with her middle daughter starring for a Marshall Lady Commandos state championship team under legendary coach Dorothy Gaters. Davis Gates lives on the South Side of Chicago with her husband and three children. So we got next. Four years later, after undergoing brain surgery, she retired, and Sharkey, her vice president, took over. They would have you to believe that you cant read Beloved in a classroom, she continued. The union made a push for affordable housing for students and teachers to be written into their contract, along with sanctuary protection for immigrantsunprecedented demands. Before she was elected CTU president in 2022, Davis Gates served four years as vice president of the union. Im not going on your field trip because its not fair.. Im PROUD of you. That figure is composed of merit raises and other specific pools of raises that do not apply to all union members across the board. In 2012, teachers went on strike for seven days. Closures as a reform measure became an option in 1995, when Mayor Richard M. Daley gained control of the citys schools under a new state law. We see our schools closed and defunded. 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. Chicago magazine newsletters have you covered. CTU argued that this was an undue burden. McQueary, Kristen. Occupation: Vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union. And I think because of that, its easier for people to extract characters and focus on them. South Side of Chicago . While a victory for the teachers union, the concessions came at a significant cost estimated at about $500 million to Chicagos already-shaky financial condition. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), leading the CTU to declare itself neutral in the 2020 Democratic primaries. 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. That the public sparring and uncertainty send families fleeing for private schools or the suburbs. And also really scared. The challengers. The CTU is no small thing. 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. I liked the ability to free someone from something that was unfair or unjust.. The rhetoric on education reform and pension reform in Chicagois upside down. It was a lot of things, Sharkey says about not seeking reelection. CTU is a local union of the American Federation of Teachers, the countrys second-largest national teachers union. Some notable people were looking on. The CTU is Local 1 of the American Federation of Teachers, an Illinois Federation of Teachers affiliate and affiliated with the Chicago Federation of Labor and the AFL-CIO. 1969: Two-day strike results in salary increases, teacher aides, and class size maximum. The problems are complex. The Members First caucus came in with 27%, and the REAL caucus with 17%. She also serves as a board member for the Action Center on Race & the Economy (ACRE), a nexus for organizations working at the intersection of the struggle for racial justice and Wall Street accountability. All rights reserved. Chicago Public Schools Jackson Potter is the Vice President of the Chicago Teachers Union. Item 6 on the CTU mission expresses a purpose of enlarging the CTU by incorporating charter school educators, as well as other Chicago-area educators that may join with this Union. In 2018, the CTU was successful in adding the 1,000 members of the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff to a division within the CTU, though other charter school teacher labor unions remained independent of the CTU. It irks Gates that theres an expectation that she and the mayor should get along. And she doesnt like it., He calls her sensitivity her superpower, even as it invites blowback. Stacy Davis Gates is president of the Chicago Teachers Union and executive vice president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. Accessed June 01, 2020. May 24, 2022 | Blair Paddock. It was all I could do to refrain from leaping up from my desk at work and cheering. The Chicago Teacher Federation threw itself into political advocacy, organizing behind candidates who were favorable to their goals. Chicago Teachers Union, Website. At a press conference shortly after the majority of CTU members voted in January to work remotely, Lightfoot accused the union of turning Chicago into a laughingstock all across the country and declared: We will not pay you to abandon your posts and your children at a time when they and their families need us most. Prior to her current role at the CTU, she served as the unions Political and Legislative Director. Accessed June 02. 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. Sharkey taught at Chicago Vocational Career Academy (CVCA). Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Stacy Davis Gates was elected president of the union Friday following a months-long, hard-fought battle against two challengers to succeed outgoing. The CTUF has lost $2 million per year since the sale of the Fewkes Tower. Ms. 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%. 2020 Chicago magazine / A Chicago Tribune Media Group website. I need to vote for someone like you. Her mother was born in the South and left during the Great Migration. (That didnt rattle Lewis, who years later told a crowd gathered at the Hideout for an event, I know bad words, too. . She remembers Arne Duncan, CPSs CEO at the time, delivering the news at her building. We dont win half the things we achieved in 2019 without Stacy, says Jackson Potter, the unions former staff coordinator. You dont need notes to talk to your family.. Ms. Davis Gates is currently on leave from the classroom, where she taught high school social studies for over a decade at Englewood, Clemente, and Mason Community Links High Schools. The air crackled with applause. Assets: $16,818,501, The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is the teachers union for 25,000 teachers, paraprofessionals, and other public school employees in the Chicago, Illinois public school system, the third-largest school system in the United States. 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. And they tried her a lot because she was younger. American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO. We got next because theres a Stacy Gates.. Her dad was the first child in his family to be born in the North. After the Chicago Teachers Union achieved the power to collectively bargain, CTU teachers went on strike nine times in twenty years, with four strikes in the first seven years. It was the final day of Black History Month and Stacy Davis Gates needed to be in three places at once. And we have been searching for that matter for centuries. Sharkey was first elected vice president in 2010, when Karen Lewis was elected CTUs president. Instability has been a "hallmark" of CPS for decades, Davis Gates asserts, and, as she recalls, no one was asking about stability when Mayor Rahm Emanuel or former CPS chief Arne Duncan who. Every problem in societyhunger, domestic violence, povertyit walks into your doors, doesnt it? Sanders said to the crowd gathered inside CTU headquarters. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Your messaging is atrocious. They attend a public school on the South Side. Students would try you a lot, Kimbrough says. She also serves as a board member for the Action Center on Race & the Economy (ACRE), a nexus for organizations working at the intersection of the struggle for racial justice and Wall Street accountability. Karen Lewis, a longtime chemistry teacher, was elected to lead the newly reform-minded CTU in 2010. Chicago Public Schools social studies teacher, labor leader, President of the Chicago Teachers Union since 2014, Paraprofessionals and School-related Personnel. Dont be compelled to turn around and walk backwards in the time of need. Advertisement. 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. Not just for the team of people I work with every day, but also for the members., She tries to imagine her grandmothers, as girls, imagining her. Why are we negotiating safety? Gates asks. Ms. Davis Gates lives on the South Side of Chicago with her husband and three children. These arent just personality conflicts, Sharkey tells me. As a speech-language pathologist, she served as an executive board elementary functional vice president and Big Bargaining Team member. Wikipedia. While Chicago officials did not give them everything they demanded, the city did agree to a 16% raise over five years, smaller class sizes and more support staff, including social workers, nurses, librarians, and others. [36], CTU has been an active opponent of education reforms or changes that could reduce the unions power within the education system. 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. 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. And theyre like, No, its just for the honor kids. And shes like, Well, then I aint going. I mean, imagine being that kid in third grade or fifth grade whos like, No. It made me feel powerless. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. It turned me upside down., In 2005, in Gatess second year teaching at Englewood High, CPS announced the school would close. However, due to the Loeb Rule, the Chicago Board of Education fired dozens of participating teachers. Accessed June 02, 2020. I dont intend to lose, Gates tells me. The CTU represents Chicago area teachers in regular collective bargaining contract agreements. [43], https://www.aft.org/periodical/psrp-reporter/fall-2015/form-more-perfect-union ^. 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. Her paternal grandfather left Mississippi to work at a factory here, then left that job for one at a steel mill in Gary before eventually ending up at the Studebaker plant in South Bend, where he put down roots. [11] However, teachers unions would not accomplish this goal in the United States until a New York City teachers union reached a collective bargaining agreement after extensive teacher strikes in 1962. Stacy Gates Davis L in 2016 was employed in Chicago Teachers Union and had annual salary of $112,422 according to public records. Copyright 2023 InfluenceWatch. They remain on strike. In addition, CTU PAC donated $1.2 million to candidates and political organizations. As the Political and Legislative Director, Stacy works to ensure that public educators, students, and their families have a strong voice in the policy making process. Subscribe for free today! Davis-Gates will be moving up from her position as vice president when current president Jesse Sharkey steps down July 1. And the classroom teacher is tasked with making sense of it. (I was told you have to be a good writer to be an attorney.) She volunteered with an Urban League program that connected her to local middle school kids, and she felt pulled toward child advocacy. My other grandmother was born out of wedlock and ostracized from both sides of her family tree. Prior to that, she was the CTUs political and legislative director. In Gatess office at CTU headquarters, a Notorious SDG print with her likeness hangs above her deska riff on those Notorious RBG prints that were ubiquitous for a while. And she did go on the trip. Chicago Teachers Union Foundation, About. She is also the Executive Vice President of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and an Executive Vice President of the American Federation of Teachers. [24], The Foundation was founded in 1969 when it received the Fewkes Tower a 29-story high rise building in Chicago from the Chicago Teachers Union, which had built the tower in 1963 to provide affordable housing to retired teachers. They were a constant in a time when things were just all over the place. Mr. Potter has been an education activist since he led a student walkout at his high school, Whitney Young, in 1995 to push for equitable funding for schools in Illinois. Even as a sixth grader, it bugged herjust as the injustice and tragedy she sees now motivate her. The Chicago Teachers Federation was forced to leave the American Federation of Teachers. Gates is revered and resented in equal partsor at least at equal volume. Ms. Davis Gates lives on the South Side of Chicago with her husband and three children. Chicago Teachers Union, Officers. Stacy Davis Gates Won't Back Down The Chicago Teachers Union's heir apparent sees herself as a righteous champion of not just educators but of students. Then, two factions of CTU members emerged with plans to oust her and the Caucus of Rank-and-file . Stieber began his career at TEAM Englewood Academy, a public high school that, along with an Urban Prep Academies charter school, took over the building that once housed Englewood High School. In the year prior, CTU had lost $4 million. You need to run for public office. [15] The 2012 strike also proved difficult for President Barack Obama during that years presidential campaign; it pitted labor unions, whose support he needed, against Emanuel, Obamas former White House Chief of Staff and a top fundraiser. That was the moment I was radicalized.. Stacy says, What about the rest of the kids? Sharkey recounts. While interest groups on all sides sought Obamas involvement in the negotiation, President Obamas spokesman said that Obama has not expressed any opinion or made any assessment about this particular incident. [16], In 2018, CTU supported the first major strike by charter school teachers in US history. After 12 years as one of the primary faces of the Chicago Teachers Union, Jesse Sharkey is returning to the classroom. Tara Stamps, a CTU administrator and daughter of the late community activist Marion Nzinga Stamps, was onstage introducing the Jammin for PEACE speakers and performers. By Vanessa Lopez Jan 11, 2023, 6:52pm PST Transportation We are in love with humanity at this union. Yet both of these women overcame so much to put their children in a positionto put me in a positionto succeed. It does something to you., As Englewood High School was closing, the CTU was undergoing a radical transformation, led largely by Potter, away from a pay-and-benefits focus and toward a citizen activist approach. Salary Breakdown (2019) It is also terrible there is an assumption that women get along even if they disagree. (In response to a request for an interview, Lightfoot sent an email that said, in part: I am willing to work with all stakeholders who come to the table in good faith and who always put our kids and their families first.), Folks are concentrating on red lipstick, Gates continues, referencing her signature look, or the back-and-forth. They are sort of the bedrock constituency of our public schools., Gates tells me she is focused on May 20on winning the top CTU spot and following in the footsteps of Lewis, her friend and role model, who shaped her management style. What am I missing? Ive adopted the same two questions. Shes also extremely sensitive. Stacy Davis Gates and her leadership team have put their interests ahead of our unions members and the students we serve, Mary Esposito-Usterbowski, the groups presidential candidate and a citywide school psychologist, told me in an email response to my interview request. Lolly Voss, I heard you for the first time on 820am in Chicago, youre the voice that the children of Chicago NEED. Accessed June 02, 2020. When my members hear how much I love them, they hear Laura., Shes loath to squander the opportunities they provided her. Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago The CTU represents more than 25,000 teachers, paraprofessional and school-related personnel, and school clinicians working in the Chicago Public Schools and, by extension, the students and families they serve. And the students need you to clear itlike they need their next breath, they need you to clear it.. The 2019 teachers strike, which took place five months into Lightfoots term, captured national attention for both its length and the groundbreaking issues it brought to the bargaining table. Claiming dibs on revenue sources that dont exist and saying the rich will pay for it? [33], CTU and CTU PAC paid $316,000 to United Working Families, a labor-union-aligned political organization funded by CTU and SEIU Healthcare Illinois/Indiana, to conduct organizing and advocacy in line with the policies and candidates supported by the Chicago Teachers Union. Stacy Davis Gatesis the Vice President of the Chicago Teachers Union and the Executive Vice President of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. I was made to, she says, by my parents. They werent about to let her miss the Liberty Bellor disobey the principal. 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. We dont have infrastructure in our public schools to deal with the impact of the traumas our youths walk into our schools with, Gates says. [1], Founded in 1937, CTU is well known for its aggressive political engagement such as strikes, marches, and protests in favor of left-of-center educational priorities and approaches to racial equality. Ms. Issa, Nader, Chicago Teachers Union sues Betsy DeVos, CPS over coronavirus special education requirements, Chicago Sun-Times, May 20, 2020. A 1987 strike lasted a record 19 school days. Accessed June 02, 2020. I feel real accountable for unpacking that. When you work on a team, when youre doing coalition work, its important for your team to understand the dynamics of gender and race because those things do impact the institution you lead as well. Chicago Historical Society, Chicago Teachers Federation records 1864-1968. She shut that down pretty quickly., Kimbrough remembers Gates and Potter, Englewood Highs debate coach at the time, playing in those basketball games. Net assets declined to less than $1 million. Karen LewisChicago Teachers Union / PresidentKaren Lewis was an American educator and labor leader who served as president of the Chicago Teachers Union, Chicagos division of the American Federation of Teachers, from 2010 to 2014. In addition to leading the political and legislative agendas for the CTU, Stacy is a regular contributor to radio shows and print publications. [26], In 2018, despite the infusion of $48 million from the sale of the building just a few years prior, the CTUF cut back, reducing its grants from $1.9 million to 50 grantees in 2017 to $1 million to 37 grantees in 2018. Including the mayor. Chicago Teachers Union, On the CTU Sale of Fewkes Tower, April 30, 2015. [31], Between March 2018 and July 2019, just prior to the 2019 teachers strike, the Chicago Teachers Union spent almost $1.5 million on political activities. Christel Williams is a 25-year veteran of Chicago Public Schools, serving as a PSRP delegate, district supervisor, functional vice president and American Federation of Teachers-Illinois Federation of Teachers (AFT-IFT) convention delegate in that time. As a teacher and union delegate at Englewood High School, Jackson fought school closings when former CEO Arne Duncan called the school a culture of failure and started a phase-out in 2005. Here she addresses the media on last day of the teachers strike on Oct. 31, 2019. By the time teachers and students returned to classrooms in November 2019four months before COVID-19 would force schools to close againthe union had successfully bargained for a social worker, nurse, and librarian in every school, $35 million in spending to reduce overcrowded classrooms, a 16 percent pay raise for teachers over five years, and a 40 percent pay raise for teaching assistants, clerks, and other historically underpaid support staff members. It made me feel like a failure, says Gates. The impact of historical, generational disinvestment on the South Side and West Side of the city is difficult for people who are experiencing it to challenge, because its every day and it covers all facets of their existence. She has raised millions of dollars to elect classroom teachers to all levels of local government and to challenge school privatizers and union-busters, most prominently Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his rubber-stamp City Council in 2015.Ms. I tell people all the time Im only one generation separated from a cotton field, Gates says. It felt like people were still begging American institutions to see our humanity. Theyre embedded in our American history. Chicago Teachers Union, CTU PAC. 111 W. Grand Avenue Chicago, IL 60654 Map and directions Speaker Stacy Davis Gates Stacy Davis Gates is the President of the Chicago Teachers Union and the Executive Vice President of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. This is an organization that historically has represented an awful lot of important stuff in the aspirations of working-class Chicagoans in general, but Black working-class Chicagoans especially. We sat at a table debating ventilation during an airborne pandemic. $497.86: Less than $46,439* $721.68: Paraprofessionals and School-related Personnel: N/A: While the purpose of the Foundation was to support retired and disabled teachers, very few teachers ever lived at Fewkes Tower, and only seven of the 224 apartments in Fewkes Tower were occupied by retired CPS teachers when the building was sold by CTUF in 2014. His strongest performance in Chicago came in parts of Mount Greenwood in the 19th Ward, where he garnered nearly 40 percent of the vote. Weve got this amazing band program. And theyd close it anyway. I said survive. Chicago Teachers Union 1901 W. Carroll Ave. Chicago, IL 60612. Preckwinkle lost to Lori Lightfoot (D). Accessed June 01, 2020. Your visits to the show are always one of my favorite features but today (Ben Jarovsky 06/27/18), you burned down the house. You should be ashamed. Karen was a curious leader, Gates says. Subscribe to one or more of our free e-mail newsletters to get instant updates on local news, events, and opportunities in Chicago. Evaluation of New District Teachers Without Tenure. You are confronted with different children from different households coming inside a school community who are processing rape and violence and trauma in so many different ways. There are lots of ways in which they dont really want to be there, Sharkey says. Chicago is a city that can leave behind, even devour, its young. [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. We may not like it, but it just makes sense right now. The fact that you have to fight for these things, it feels like punishment. But she has no choice, she says. Accessed June 01, 2020. This salary is 12 percent lower than average and 18 percent lower than median salary in Chicago Teachers Union. This marked a split among teachers union organization leaders, as AFT President Randi Weingarten endorsed Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), while AFT leader Loretta Johnson and New York City teachers union leader Michael Mulgrew endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden. 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. Email Monica Trevino at Mtrevino@ift-aft.org. The crowd of 50 or so strong stood for Lift Every Voice and Sing., Stamps turned her attention to Gates. Email Monica Trevino at Mtrevino@ift-aft.org. Accessed June 02, 2020. On the elevator, I asked her if her speech was prepared. Stacy Davis Gates was elected president of the Chicago Teachers Union by members on Friday. That was the moment I was radicalized.. Chicago Teachers Union vice president Stacy Davis Gates talks about the looming vote to decide whether members will work remotely, in opposition to the schoo. My pawpaw used to watch it, and I watched it with him, she says. 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. However, in 2012, after 9 months of contentious negotiations between CTU, the Chicago School Board, and then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D), who had been actively closing or privatizing failing schools, the CTU went on strike again. [2] In the 2010s and early 2020s, the CTU has aligned with the ideological radical left; in 2019,the union faced criticism after representatives including a union executive board member traveled to Venezuela in support of the de facto socialist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro. I aint said live yet. Bellware, Kim, Chicago teachers say they will go on strike. An accredited provider of Illinois Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE), Chicago-Kent's Continuing Legal and Professional Education (CLE) programs offer participants an affordable opportunity to network with other practitioners, discuss current issues and trends, and problem solve with those that write, teach, and practice in the area. This site uses cookies and other tracking technologies to assist with navigation and your ability to provide feedback, analyze your use of our products and services, and assist with our promotional and marketing efforts. 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. American Federation of Teachers (AFT) STACY DAVIS-GATES, VICE PRESIENT. Illinois law limits what unions can include as part of a contract negotiation. Accessed June 02, 2020. The results were mixed for CTU. Wagner Acerbi Horta and Brendan Rigney, Beyond the picket line: Union clout, tallied, Center for Illinois Politics, October 27, 2019. Salary Breakdown (2019) Total Compensation . The E Board directs the work of the officers, sets the agenda for the House of Delegates, and makes decisions in emergencies. Lauren FitzPatrick and Nader Issa, Chicago Teachers Union Inc.: How the clout-heavy labor group spends its money, Chicago Sun-Times, January 17, 2020. She didnt have any notes with her onstage. Accessed June 02, 2020. Leone, Hannah, Chicago teacher who crossed the picket line during the strike is now suing the teachers union over dues payments, Chicago Tribune, May 07, 2020. Stacy Davis Gates EDITOR'S NOTE, OCTOBER 30, 2019: The profile below was first published on August 2, 2019. Chicago Tribune, August 20, 2019. 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. However, a growing movement of labor organizations has begun aggressively campaigning for radical-left economic policy under the branding bargaining for the common good, including intersectional policy efforts in labor negotiations.
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