K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Six sources of Chicago Teachers Union power.

For those Illinoisans looking to hold their elected officials accountable, here are six ways lawmakers are complicit in the CTU’s accumulation of immense power:

1. The CTU is empowered by some of the most union-friendly collective bargaining laws in the country. Illinois lawmakers not only make it compulsory for governments to bargain with the public sector unions over a host of issues, not just pay, but they also make teacher strikes legal – one of just 13 states to do so (See Appendix 1). That’s in sharp contrast to states like North Carolina, which ban collective bargaining with teacher unions altogether.

The CTU gained even more bargaining powers just last year when Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed HB2275 into law, expanding the number of employment issues that can be negotiated by the union.

2. The CTU is emboldened by its long history of striking. The union has a long history of successful strikes and walkouts: 1969, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 2012, 2016*, 2019, 2021*, 2022* (See Appendix 2). *walkouts

Read the whole thing.