(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The slate challenging current leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union is happy to hear President Jesse Sharkey is not running for re-election.
WBBM Newsradio’s Nancy Harty talked with a Members First Caucus candidate who says he’s worried the union is moving further to the left.
Philip Weiss is running for CTU financial secretary. The social worker at Rickover Naval Academy speculates said the CTU under Sharkey has become more hostile to the business community and police.
“They have a very socialistic perspective of what should happen, and we just want to build stronger relationships with community and with the stakeholders and city leaders,” Weiss said. “We don’t necessarily see them as enemies.”
He says he’s worried about what he calls the socialistic perspective of the union under Sharkey and Vice President Stacy Davis Gates.
“The purpose of the union is to support its membership, not to further your own political career,” he said.
He said Davis Gates, a potential successor to Sharkey, wants to take the union further to the left by pushing affordable housing in the contract and bringing in Black Lives Matter leaders to teach in classrooms.
Weiss said he wants a forensic audit of the union and its political action committee and foundation.
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