As nominating petitions began circulating for Chicago’s upcoming mayoral election this week, another local trade union accused Mayor Brandon Johnson of hypocrisy — highlighting the political fractiousness within the city’s powerful labor movement.
“Mayor Johnson’s NOT the Working Man’s Mayor if you’re a member of LiUNA Local 1001,” read a fiery Tuesday news release from the local, which represents a small slice of workers across several city departments.
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LiUNA Local 1001 business manager Bob Chianelli accused the Johnson-appointed leaders of the departments of Transportation, William Cheaks, and Aviation, Michael McMurray, of violating the laborers’ contracts and treating them “like indentured servants.”
“Most of the members of Local 1001 are middle class working men and women with families who go to work every day and just want what’s coming to them,” Chianelli said. “They don’t need to be insulted, degraded and abused by these two rogue Commissioners who think they are Kings and not public servants.”
The release came the same day candidates could begin circulating nominating petitions for the 2027 mayoral race. LiUNA’s political action committee has donated heavily this year to Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who has not officially entered the mayoral race but is widely expected to become a front-runner.
An RSVP page posted on Giannoulias’ website for a “special announcement” Sunday in Bronzeville was live as of Wednesday afternoon. A spokesperson for Giannoulias did not immediately respond to a question about whether the event was to announce he’s running for mayor.
Giannoulias is currently campaigning for reelection to his state office, but the sheer volume of his war chest — $21.8 million as of the end of June — is highly unusual for an uncompetitive general election this November.
Also Wednesday, lobbyist John Kelly, 53, officially announced his mayoral campaign in a press release, pledging to “strengthen the Chicago Police Department, improve the CTA, stabilize property taxes, and bring accountability back to City Hall.”
Kelly, who runs the firm All-Circo and whose clients include Bally’s and CVS, is a fixture of city, county and state government, but played up his status as a non-career politician in his announcement.
“I answer to one group of people—the residents of Chicago,” Kelly said in the release. “Not political organizations. Not special interests. Not the Chicago Teachers Union. Chicago already has everything it needs to become a world-class city again. The problem is that those tools are in the wrong hands.”
Asked about the LiUNA dispute, Johnson spokesperson Griffin Krueger said the administration was committed “to uphold[ing] labor standards at the highest level while meeting the commitments we have made to public servants.”
“The Johnson administration and all City departments remain committed to resolving disputes in good faith while swiftly addressing compliance concerns,” Krueger said. “Mayor Johnson holds the utmost respect for the City workers who keep Chicago running and is deeply grateful for all they do in service of the people of our city.”
In February, Giannoulias logged $750,000 in contributions from the LiUNA Chicago Laborers’ District Council Political Action Committee and another $250,000 from the Laborers’ Political League Great Lakes Region — an affiliated LiUNA regional political action committee.
LiUNA wouldn’t comment Tuesday on the mayoral race.
But trade unions like LiUNA have coalesced around Giannoulias this year. Those unions have historically leaned more politically conservative than the stridently progressive base anchored by the Chicago Teachers Union that helped elect Johnson.
Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias attends a press conference at the King Community Service Center in Chicago, July 30, 2025. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)
Besides LiUNA, Giannoulias has received $1 million contributions each from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 134 and separate funds for carpenters, plumbers and pipefitters so far this year. The International Union of Operating Engineers contributed $1 million each from its political education fund and its joint labor management PAC.
The Operating Engineers Local 150 is in the midst of a strike at the city’s port that has dragged on for more than a year. The union recently took aim at the mayor for meeting with members of a rival union whom Local 150 considers to be strikebreakers, an allegation the other union heartily disputes.
Local 150 has said the port conflict has “nothing to do with politics” and has said the labor management PAC is legally separate from the local.
At CDOT, LiUNA represents city employees who do work like asphalt paving and pothole repair. And at the Aviation Department, the union represents laborers who cut grass, trim trees and pick up trash around the city’s airports.
In information provided via a spokesperson, Chianelli said the union had filed grievances over the alleged contract violations.
The union alleges Aviation Department employees are getting stiffed out of contractually mandated pay raises and have had their paid holidays reduced. LiUNA is also accusing the Transportation Department of suspending workers without due process.
Chianelli added that some CDOT workers’ paychecks have been short “hundreds and sometimes over a thousand” dollars due to what he said the city claims is a faulty timekeeping system.
In 2024, the city initiated a payroll audit over a similar problem that led to both over- and under-payments to city workers. Chianelli had sharp words then, too, criticizing Johnson for spending millions on “a toxic site for migrant housing … yet the men and women that keep this City running, pick up the trash, fix the streets and sidewalks, trim the trees, keep the airports safe and clean, and so much more, are being punished because the City cannot do 2nd grade math.”
The city’s Aviation Department did not respond to a request for comment on the new allegations. Erica Schroeder, a spokesperson for the Department of Transportation, declined to comment beyond the statement provided by the mayor’s office.
Chianelli accused Johnson, who cut his teeth as an organizer for the CTU, of being a hypocrite.
“This Mayor is continually trying to sell the notion that he is for the working men and women and how his administration [is] focused on the black and brown citizens of Chicago,” Chianelli said in Tuesday’s news release. “Yet, when it comes to his employees, of which LiUNA Local 1001 consists of over 1,900 members who a vast majority are black and brown, he treats them completely different.”
LiUNA did not endorse any candidate in the 2023 mayoral election’s first round. The union then endorsed Johnson challenger Vallas in the runoff. The union’s district council contributed $200,000 to Johnson’s campaign in May of 2023, after he defeated Vallas.
Trade unions were largely split in the first round of the last mayoral race. The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, for instance, endorsed U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, while Plumbers Local 130 backed then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot before largely coalescing around Vallas in the runoff election that spring.
The real trouble for Johnson next year could come from a fracture within the progressive wing of the city’s labor movement. The Service Employees International Union — which worked together with the CTU to help propel Johnson into office — has since feuded bitterly with the teachers’ union in a dispute over school district jobs. It remains unclear what candidate SEIU will support this go-round.
“I’m running the city of Chicago. I’m not running labor,” Johnson said Tuesday when asked about the prospect of SEIU and CTU being split in 2027.
“The progressive cause in this city … has gone through, you know, a significant transformation and change,” Johnson said. “We’re talking about 40 years of not having a progressive leader on the fifth floor. … I do recognize that my position and my commitment to justice and equity has created some frustration from individuals who want more, or from individuals who think that I’m doing too much.”
Chicago Tribune’s Alice Yin contributed.