Education

Stacy Davis Gates Wins Second Term as Chicago Teachers Union President

Stacy Davis Gates and the Caucus of Rank-and-file Educators (CORE) will remain in charge of the Chicago Teachers Union for three more years after emerging victorious in Friday’s officers elections.

CORE received 64% of votes to defeat a challenge from the Respect Educate Advocate Lead — or REAL — caucus.

Friday’s results mean Davis Gates will remain as union president, joining the rest of the CORE slate of CTU leadership with vice president Jackson Potter, recording secretary Vicki Kurzydlo and financial secretary Diane Castro.

“In a moment where the billionaire bros are stripping federal workers of their collective bargaining rights, where states like Indiana are targeting the institution of public schools altogether, and where Black Americans and individuals of every identity are seeing their voting rights rolled back, we are proud of the vibrancy of our union democracy, grateful to every member who participated, and delivered this mandate to keep building and keep moving forward,” CORE leadership said in a statement to union members.

CORE has been in control since 2010, when the caucus swept into office under powerhouse President Karen Lewis. She stepped down in 2014 and was succeeded by Jesse Sharkey and now Davis Gates, who is entering her second term as union president.

Davis Gates this week credited her caucus with growing the CTU’s overall influence over the years, transforming it into a “power player” beyond the education realm and into “the struggle for equity and justice.”

The union during Davis Gates’ first term spent big to back its former organizer Brandon Johnson’s successful mayoral campaign in 2023 and more recently finalized a new four-year labor agreement with Chicago Public Schools that includes pay raises, class size limits and protections for academic freedoms.

When it came time to ratify that agreement last month, more than 85% of the union’s nearly 30,000 members came out to vote, with 97% of that group voting in favor of the contract. This also marked the first time in 15 years the union finalized a new contract without the need for a strike vote or an actual work stoppage.

“We will continue to build the strongest force field around our students, our members, our school communities, our city and our union," CORE said in a statement. "The greatest protection against attacks — whether it is from an out-of-line administrator or an out-of-line president — is each other.”

But the REAL caucus claimed union leadership should have done more to secure higher raises and more concrete language to make the contract’s provisions more enforceable.

REAL’s presidential candidate Erika Meza and her caucus criticized CORE leadership as being out of touch with its members and claimed CTU is a “fractured” union that needs to better support its members.

Meza also criticized the union leadership’s transparency, political engagements and relationships with other labor allies.

They pledged to improve classroom working conditions, expand an existing grievance department to respond to member concerns and enact term limits on union leaders.

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