Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates
CHICAGO - As the Chicago Teachers Union continues its fight in Cook County court against efforts by union members to force CTU to turn over financial audits, the court fight has also drawn the attention of lawmakers in Washington, D.C., who say the union's intransigence could be used to guide reforms to labor law to require unions nationwide to be more forthcoming with information about how they are spending their members' dues.
On Nov. 20, U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Michigan, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Education and Workforce, sent a letter to CTU President Stacy Davis Gates, officially requesting the union turn over to the committee full copies of the union's official audited financial reports for every year since 2019.
Further, the House committee requested CTU provide communications concerning CTU members' request for those audits and minutes from any meetings at which such audit access requests were discussed by CTU leadership.
The committee gave CTU until Dec. 8 to turn over the documents.
In the letter, Walberg said the documents were being demanded by the committee to aid lawmakers in considering and drafting reforms to the federal Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA).
That law establishes, in part, union members' rights to access information concerning how their union organizations collect, manage and spend union members' dues and other union finances.
In the letter, Walberg said the investigation is needed "to protect union members’ rights in light of certain failures" by the CTU to turn over "complete financial audits since 2020" to their membership upon request.
"This failure to disclose financial information strips dues-paying members of their basic right to understand how their money is spent," Walberg wrote in the letter.
Walberg noted the LMRDA law requires unions to file annual financial reports with the U.S. Labor Department, which he said is "an essential safeguard designed to shine a light on union finances, prevent abuse of power, and guarantee that workers have both transparency and a voice in how their dues are used."
"When unions flout these obligations, they betray the trust of the very people they are meant to serve. By withholding complete financial audits from its members, CTU has failed to uphold the spirit of union transparency or comply with its own by-laws. As such, the Committee is investigating this matter to better determine whether the LMRDA should be amended to strengthen its requirements so that union members have access to more robust and timely financial information.
"Every dollar paid by workers should serve their interests, not those of a select few operating in the shadows," Walberg wrote, on behalf of the committee.
The federal intervention comes more than a year after a group of CTU members sued the union in Cook County Circuit Court. The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring CTU to turn over five years' worth of audited financial reports for the years 2019-2024.
According to the lawsuit, under the CTU's contract and bylaws the CTU is obligated to "furnish an audited report of the Union which shall be printed in the Union's publication" and made available to all union members.
However, since 2020, the CTU has refused to do so. The most recent report listed financials for an audit that covered the union's revenue and spending for 2018 and the first half of 2019.
According to the complaint, the four plaintiffs have repeatedly requested copies of the audit, but the union has ignored their requests. According to the complaint, the lead plaintiff, identified as Chicago Public Schools social worker Philip Weiss, made "multiple written requests" to CTU leadership "to publish copies of the audits which have been unanswered or ignored."
Before filing suit, plaintiffs and their attorneys from the nonprofit constitutional rights advocacy group, the Liberty Justice Center, sent a demand letter to CTU leadership, again requesting the CTU release the missing audits to its members and notifying Gates and other CTU leaders of their intent to sue.
However, according to the Liberty Justice Center, CTU leadership instead chose to retaliate against the plaintiffs with threats and harassment, attempting to belittle their transparency requests as being "part of a 'right-wing' effort" associated with political organizations supporting President Donald Trump.
In his letter, Walberg noted Gates "impugned a member’s request that audits be published by maligning the request as a racist 'dog whistle.'"
Gates and the CTU have emerged as central powerful figures in Chicago city politics following the election of CTU member Brandon Johnson as Chicago mayor.
According to published reports, the CTU and its allied teachers unions have emerged as the biggest spenders on Chicago politics, dropping millions into Chicago political campaigns in recent years, while pushing for massive new contracts for CTU members and billions of dollars in new city and state taxes and spending.
As the CTU has increased its political machinations in recent years, the union has also steadfastly ignored members' demands for transparency concerning how it is spending their dues.
In court, CTU has failed to dismiss the lawsuit.
In the spring, Cook County Judge David Atkins rejected CTU's claims it isn't required to provide members with full audited financials, but merely "summary reports" prepared by union leadership based on their assertions concerning how the union spent the money.
Following that ruling, the CTU moved for summary judgment in its favor in August. Under summary judgment, a judge can essentially determine a trial is not needed and the evidence and legal arguments presented to that point strongly favors one party over the other.
At the same time, the union asked the judge to stop plaintiffs from using the evidence discovery process to obtain records, potentially including the audited reports and other communications concerning the financial audits and members' requests for the audited financials.
Plaintiffs have noted the arguments in the summary judgment petition are essentially the same as those the court already rejected in the motion to dismiss.
At the same time, the plaintiffs have asked the judge to knock down the union's effort to continue to shield documentary evidence from union member plaintiffs.
In a brief filed Oct. 6, the plaintiffs noted CTU and its lawyers have never engaged in the traditional process of good-faith discussions on discovery limits with the plaintiffs at all, instead merely asking the court to freeze plaintiffs out entirely until the court rules on the summary judgment petition.
The plaintiffs noted the court already put a hold on discovery for months while the court weighed the motion to dismiss.
Judge Atkins has not yet ruled on the summary judgment or discovery questions. On Oct. 15, Atkins said he had taken the case "under advisement." He did not indicate when he might rule on the matter.
He has set a hearing for Jan. 23.
Meanwhile, Rep. Walberg said his House committee will now also be requiring Gates and the CTU to deal with federal scrutiny of their refusal to release the financial audits.
In a statement provided in a report on the House committee's letter published by Fox News, an attorney for CTU continued to disparage those seeking the reports, saying: "The letter from Mr. Walberg is based on deeply flawed and inaccurate assertions of dishonest actors."
An attorney for the plaintiffs, however, said the CTU could have avoided all of the probes and legal actions by merely complying with its members’ requests for transparency.
In an emailed statement, Liberty Justice Center senior counsel Angel Valencia said: “Had CTU provided these documents to our clients when they requested them, neither our lawsuit, nor the Committee’s inquiry would have been necessary. Instead CTU has spent members’ union dues on legal fees trying to avoid transparency and accountability of their financial books. Until our clients obtain these records and CTU complies with its bylaws, we will continue to advance the lawsuit, which remains pending.
“We are hopeful that the Committee's demands will help deliver justice for our clients along with the annual financial audits that have been missing for more than five years."
