Chicago Teachers Uni history

Records show that the 1938 AFT convention, which was planned to be held at a Cincinnati hotel, was moved to an entirely new location because blacks were confined to using freight elevators in the hotel.

In 1941, the charters of three locals were withdrawn following an investigation and recommendation by the AFT executive council.

The age of teacher militancy began in November 1960 with a one-day walkout of the United Federation of Teachers of New York City; two years later the UFT won the first comprehensive teacher contract in the country.

In 1965 the ownership of the Fewkes was transferred to Chicago Teachers Union Tower Corporation who established §501(c)(2) not-for-profit organization with the purpose to be transferred to the Foundation.

In 1969, the UFT led the way for other AFT locals when it successfully won the right to represent 10,000 paraprofessionals in New York City.

Albert Shanker was elected president of the AFT in 1974.

The union also was active in the establishment of the AFL-CIO's Department for Professional Employees in 1977, which elected then-AFT president Albert Shanker its first president.

Following a lengthy strike in 1987, the Illinois School Reform Act was passed.

The AFT also sent help to a struggling black trade union movement in South Africa and lent support to the Chilean teachers union, which played a major role in ridding Chile of the Pinochet dictatorship in 1988.

Fifteen AFT observers were on hand to monitor the first free and democratic elections in South Africa in 1994.

A central figure in the union's role in education reform and the standards movement was lost with the untimely death in 1997 of the AFT's longest-serving president, Albert Shanker, recognized as one of the most influential figures in education in the 20th Century.

His successor, former UFT president Sandra Feldman, remained at the helm of one of the fastest-growing unions in the AFL-CIO until her retirement in July 2004.

McElroy retired in 2008 and was succeeded by former United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who was elected president at the union's national 2008 convention in Chicago.

In 2010, CTU members spoke loudly, electing a new leadership.

In 2011, following Cortese's retirement, Johnson was appointed secretary-treasurer and Francine Lawrence as executive vice president.

Both were re-elected to their posts at the 2012 AFT convention.

In 2016, the Foundation’s newly appointed Executive Director, Carmen Curet, visited over fifty community-based organizations throughout Chicago, awarding $1.9M in grant funding to forty-six of those organizations.

Under Weingarten's leadership, the union has continued its solid membership growth, with the total reaching at 1.7 million members in 2017.