News and Advocacy

Cleaning House: The End of CPS's Contract with Aramark

As the custodial management contract with Aramark inside Chicago Public Schools (CPS) comes to an end, there’s a palpable mix of anticipation and reservation.The decision to bring management back unde

Data-Driven AP Lifts Up Students, Teachers

Lizzy Crispin headed the committee that led Leonardo da Vinci High School to become the first and only Blue Ribbon high school in Buffalo, New York.

Increase in Job-Related Deaths

Overall, fatalities on the job rose 5.7%. The rise in fatal occupational injuries from 2021 to 2022 is “alarming and unacceptable” to the AFL-CIO.

Union Workers Held Jobs More During Pandemic

Workers able to act collectively and bargain through their union, have been able to secure enhanced safety measures.

CPS Principals Identify Serious School Reopening Obstacles

Less than 17% of principals and assistant principals believe the district is prepared and ready to open schools. That is according to a survey executed by the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association (see full results below). More than 370 principals and assistant principals responded.

Principals & Teachers Hold Joint Reopening Press Conference

CPAA president, Troy LaRaviere, participated in a joint school reopening press conference with the Chicago Teachers Union. This video excerpt from that press conference highlights audio of Chicago Schools CEO, Janice Jackson, telling principals she consciously chose to delay giving them critical reopening information in order to give herself time to spin the reopening announcement to the media.

AFSA Joins Effort on Hill for State and Local Relief

AFSA joined other education,  labor and social justice organizations asking Congress to help communities around the country.

In a letter to Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer the groups wrote:

Biden, AFL-CIO Labor Law Agendas Track Each Other

Go to incoming Democratic President Joe Biden’s “Building Back Better” agenda on his website and read through it. The word “union,” the phrase “right to organize” and especially the word “worker” run through it like a constant thread.

No wonder AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, in a Jan. 12 telephone press conference, considered Biden the most pro-worker president in decades. “And in one week and one day, Joe Biden will be inaugurated and we’re ready to work with him.”

AFL-CIO Workers First Agenda for 2021

We urge the Biden administration and Congress to seize this opportunity to transform the lives of working people through bold, structural change.