The Chicago Teachers Union has based their work around fighting for educational justice in Chicago. Through beneficial frameworks such as social justice unionism and participatory democratic organizing the CTU works to organize the community around relieving governmental power from high officials and placing it in the hands of the more local community. The CTU unionizes through strikes, getting local community citizens involved in the process. One of the main social justice unionizing events is a strike targeting a longer, but better school day (Sokolower 2020). With a longer school day, through the act of participatory democratic organizing parents have made it clear that with this change, it is crucial teachers receive adequate compensation for the added work. The participation of parents in working towards educational justice has worked with the CTU to acknowledge the need for schools to involve creative arts in their teaching, along with an understanding of how the current governmental leaders have made things worse for the CTU (Sokowlower 2020). The social justice unionism tactics that contributed to the success that the CTU has seen today is through “organizing, research, and political action…” traveling around to schools to figure out what is most important in providing students with the best education possible (Sokolower 2020).

The Chicago Teacher Union is one of the strongest social unions uniting teachers, parents, and students to better the education system of Chicago, fighting for smaller class sizes and employing more emotional support staff, rather than spending money on school officers (Chicago Teachers Test 2019). The social union organizes through petitions, walk outs, and strikes which can reach up to 400,000 students to work against the oppression found within the current schooling systems (Chicago Teachers Test 2019). As a social union, the CTU is a part of the Grassroots Collaborative which is an organization joining 11 different unions that work together for local and statewide change in Chicago, Illinois (Grassroots Collaborative). Specific unions within the Grassroots Collaborative work closely to improve the levels of education that students are receiving and the equality that students have to reach these higher levels of education. Specifically, the CTU, Chicago Teachers Union, works vigorously to give Chicago students the schooling that they deserve. The CTU continuously focuses on issues such as ensuring that all schools are safe, allowing for students to feel comfortable in their learning environment (Chicago Teachers Test 2019). Additionally, CTU addresses issues of race and fairness in education, which has not always been practiced in Chicago, along with problems within the classroom such as class size. All of these problems are addressed by the CTU, working towards making the education in Chicago, Illinois for students a much better space.

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