The Chicago Teachers Federation was a

teachers union The New York City Teachers Union or "TU" (1916–1964) was the first New York labor union for teachers, formed as "AFT Local 5" of the American Federation of Teachers, which found itself hounded throughout its history due largely to co-membership ...

Chicago Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

that was founded in 1897. It is considered a predecessor of today's

Chicago Teachers Union The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is a labor union that represents teachers, paraprofessionals, and clinicians in the Chicago public school system. The union has consistently fought for improved pay, benefits, and job security for its members, an ...

History

The Chicago Teachers Federation was an organization of women elementary school teachers founded in 1897. In its first few years, it ran a successful campaign to increase teacher pay, and its membership grew to 2,500. In 1900, the CTF elected Catherine Goggin and

Margaret Haley Margaret A. Haley (November 15, 1861 – January 5, 1939) was a teacher, unionist, and Georgist land value tax activist,Arnesen, Eric. Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working-class History. New York: Routledge, 2007. who was dubbed the "lady ...

as its officers, deciding to pay them the same wages as those made by teachers. Chicagoteachers1900

Under the leadership of Haley and Goggin, the CTF struggled for

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

, for women's rights within the labor movement, and for the right of woman workers to earn as much as their male counterparts. The CTF also launched a successful campaign against corporate tax evasion, the compensation for which was used to pay back salaries upon which the city had reneged. In 1902, the CTF joined the

Chicago Federation of Labor The Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL) is an umbrella organization for unions in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is a subordinate body of the AFL–CIO, and as of 2011 has about 320 affiliated member unions representing half a million union members in C ...

(CFL). It was the first time that a teachers' group had affiliated with a larger labor organization. In 1916, Haley and the CTF helped to found the

American Federation of Teachers The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the second largest teacher's labor union in America (the largest being the National Education Association). The union was founded in Chicago. John Dewey and Margaret Haley were founders. About 60 perc ...

(AFT), in which the CTF became Local 1. However, the Chicago Board of Education, led by

Jacob Loeb Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Ja ...

, had recently passed a rule against teacher unions:

Membership by teachers in labor unions or in organizations of teachers affiliated with a trade union or a federation or association of trade unions, as well as teachers' organizations which have officers, business agents, or other representatives who are not members of the teaching force, is inimical to proper discipline, prejudicial to the efficiency of the teaching force, and detrimental to the welfare of the public school system. Therefore, such membership, affiliation, or representation is hereby prohibited.

This rule, which became known as the Loeb rule, further stated that teachers would be fired unless they stated in writing that they did not belong to any such organization. The Loeb rule allowed the city to fire 68 teachers, including the CTF leadership, who refused to leave the union. By 1917, the CTF was forced to withdraw from both the CFL and the AFT. Subsequent passage of the Otis rule placed education in the hands of a centralized Board of Education. However, the board was still appointed by city politicians. In the coming years, the city and the

Chicago Board of Education The Chicago Board of Education serves as the board of education (school board) for the Chicago Public Schools. The board traces its origins to the Board of School Inspectors, created in 1837. The board is currently appointed solely by the mayor ...

were accused of rampant corruption, particularly in connection with two-time mayor

William Hale Thompson William Hale Thompson (May 14, 1869 – March 19, 1944) was an American politician who served as mayor of Chicago from 1915 to 1923 and again from 1927 to 1931. Known as "Big Bill", Reynolds, Paul (November 29, 2009)"US-UK 'Special Relationshi ...

. Many CPS employees were appointed by the Mayor, and a 1931 study found that Chicago spent more money than any other major city on operations costs outside of education. The proliferation of bureaucracy was a serious concern: when the Elementary Teachers Union formed in 1928, one of its stated goals was "freeing of teachers from the increasingly intolerable burden of red tape and clerical work. By the 1930s, Chicago teachers had formed several other different unions, some of which were still segregated by gender. Unrest in the early 1930s served to unite these groups, which previously had difficulty cooperating. The Chicago Teachers Federation played an active role in the

(AFT) and retained their status as Local 1. In 1937, Local 1 battled New York's Local 5 over whether the AFT would remain in the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutu ...

(AFL) or join the newer and more inclusive

Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of ...

(CIO). (New York's Local 5 was at that time the Teachers' Union, which was soon expelled from the AFT after accusations of

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

, and replaced by the more moderate

United Federation of Teachers The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) is the labor union that represents most teachers in New York City public schools. , there were about 118,000 in-service teachers and 17,000 paraprofessional educators in the union, as well as about 54,000 ...

.) Soon after the convention (which decided to stay in the AFL), the Chicago Teachers Union was officially chartered by the AFT as an amalgamation of Chicago's multiple teacher unions in Chicago. At this point about 3,500 teachers were members of the new Local. By September, it was the largest teachers union in the U.S., with over 8,500 members. The CTF, still under the leadership of its longtime head

, remained separate for some years, based on concerns that the CTU would disproportionately represent the interests of males and high school teachers.Lyons, ''Teachers and Reform'' (2008), p. 45.

References

Bibliography

* Lyons, John F. ''Teachers and Reform: Chicago Public Education 1929–1970.'' Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008. . {{Chicago Public Schools 1897 establishments in Illinois American Federation of Teachers Chicago Public Schools Education trade unions Organizations based in Chicago Trade unions established in 1897 Trade unions in Illinois Chicago Teachers Union