The Chicago Teachers Union is cooperating with a federal inquiry into allegations that it is keeping financial audits from its members, though a lawyer representing the union argues \u201cit\u2019s a waste of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Republican-led U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce sent a letter<\/a> to CTU President Stacy Davis Gates last week accusing the union of failing to provide \u201ccomplete financial audits\u201d to members since 2020.<\/p>\n \u201cThis failure to disclose financial information strips dues-paying members of their basic right to understand how their money is spent,\u201d the letter states. \u201cEvery dollar paid by workers should serve their interests, not those of a select few operating in the shadows.\u201d<\/p>\n The letter also alleges that Davis Gates maligned a member\u2019s request for published audits as a \u201cracist \u2018dog whistle,\u2019\u201d citing social media posts<\/a> from Davis Gates that were shared by a member of the conservative Illinois Policy Institute. In one post, Davis Gates writes that the financial probes were treating her like a \u201cthief.\u201d<\/p>\n Top members of the House committee asked the CTU to provide five years of financial documents, saying the information would help lawmakers potentially make changes to the federal law that requires labor unions to disclose certain financial information to their members.<\/p>\n Michael Bromwich, an attorney with Washington, D.C.-based law firm Steptoe, is representing the CTU in the matter. He said the union will cooperate with the investigation and respond by Dec. 22, but he wasn\u2019t concerned. He said the audit reports are already available for its rank-and-file to see at the union office.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a waste of time, and it\u2019s a waste of resources, but we will be good citizens and we will be responding with any responsive documents,\u201d Bromwich told the Sun-Times and WBEZ. \u201cThere is much less here than meets the eye.\u201d<\/p>\n Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said the letter was \u201cexceptional\u201d and he couldn\u2019t recall another local union fielding this kind of inquiry from Congress in recent years.<\/p>\n Bruno said it\u2019s important to remember the political context in which this inquiry is taking place. Davis Gates and other CTU leaders have been vocal against the Trump administration, admonishing it for threatening funding for Chicago Public Schools over programs such as the Black Student Success plan.<\/a><\/p>\n In a response to the committee on Monday, Bromwich accused the House committee of making conclusions before reviewing evidence.<\/p>\n He also questioned whether the inquiry was being used as a \u201cstalking horse\u201d to covertly gather information for CTU members represented by a conservative law firm who filed a civil lawsuit over similar allegations.<\/p>\n \u201cWe expect your assurance that this is not the case,\u201d Bromwich wrote.<\/p>\n