The battle over who should pay to fund our schools, parks and libraries reached a fever pitch this week. Santas were arrested on the Gold Coast demanding the ultra rich pay a tiny fraction more to fund our schools, youth jobs, parks and libraries. And the billionaire backers in City Council went on record with who they think should fund our city: YOU.
Yesterday, we joined our allies from the Peoples Unity Platform for a Tax the Rich holiday rally on the Mag Mile, the playground for Chicago’s ultra wealthy. Braving frigid temperatures, we donned Santa hats, sang carols to the wealthy and called on the City Council to support the mayor’s Protecting Chicago Budget.
As we assembled on Michigan Avenue, several courageous Santas stood their ground in acts of civil disobedience and were arrested trying to keep the grinches from stealing youth jobs for Christmas. Watch coverage of the rally on ABC-7.
CTU Member Larnce White speaks at the Tax the Rich Holiday rally, calling on the City Council to pass the Protecting Chicago Budget.
Chicagoans are speaking loud and clear at rallies, at City Council hearings, at meetings with their alders. Make the wealthy corporations pay just a little bit more to fund the services Chicago’s working families rely on.
Tax You or Tax the Ultra-Rich?
Ever since the mayor proposed his Protecting Chicago budget that funds community safety through a corporate head tax and makes historic investments in our schools, parks, and libraries, the billionaire lobby has been frothing at the mouth.
But no matter how they spin it, the math is clear. We can tax the wealthiest, largest corporations who have been getting tax breaks from Trump OR increase taxes on working Chicagoans AND massively slash the services they rely on.
This week, the Corporate Caucus on city council made its opinion crystal clear by finally putting forward an “alternative” budget that taxes Chicagoans instead of the largest corporations. They want to replace Mayor Johnson’s corporate head tax by boosting the garbage fees and beer taxes you pay, cutting the services you rely on and funds for our schools, parks and libraries.
Read more for more detail and to find a list of the alderpersons who want YOU to pay more to protect the city’s wealthiest corporations. Then call your alder and ask for a YES vote on the Protecting Chicago Budget:
Trib Story: ‘CPS is mistreating workers,’ but frame it as ‘union beef’
You may have seen an article in the Tribune this week that touches on something important going on at CPS but – surprise, surprise – frames it up as the drama of unions fighting each other instead of concentrating on what management is up to.
Here’s what you should know. CPS has a long practice of using “Miscellaneous Employee” as a catchall job title for workers doing everything from short-term, five-hour-a-week seasonal jobs at schools, to serving as management consultants on central office projects, to serving as tutors and lunchroom monitors, to improperly performing work covered by CTU, SEIU and potentially other union contracts. Our union has filed numerous grievances seeking recognition as the bargaining unit representing these workers.
We learned this week that SEIU Local 73 is seeking certification as the union representative for all miscellaneous employees, including those performing CTU-represented work and whose rights we’ve long been demanding be enforced. We understand CPS intends to challenge the SEIU petition and we will continue our grievance process to ensure the right to organize, that workers are properly classified and that those performing CTU bargaining unit work are represented by our union.
Rather than working with its employees’ unions to resolve these issues, CPS leadership has left this issue unaddressed for years, choosing to shortchange school staff and attempting to create conflict among workers and their unions that CTU is determined to prevent.
We will continue to press CPS to abide by the commitments in its labor contracts, treat all workers fairly, and take steps to protect the rights and prevent the misuse of miscellaneous employees
We’ve posted more detail for you that you can read here.