A key political participant is lacking from a weekend birthday fundraiser that would function an unofficial launch for Mayor Brandon Johnson’s re-election marketing campaign.
The host committee for the Fulton Market fundraiser doesn’t embrace the Service Workers Worldwide Union or any of its affiliated unions. That’s a potent sign that the union serving to bankroll and workers Johnson’s 2023 mayoral marketing campaign is disenchanted with the embattled mayor, and should not help him for a second time period.
The Saturday evening occasion to have a good time Johnson’s forty ninth birthday is the mayor’s first main fundraiser since taking workplace. Normal admission tickets price $250. The get together will happen at at 167 Inexperienced Avenue, a basketball court docket turned occasion area overlooking the Chicago skyline.
“I feel they’re achieved with him. They don’t help him any longer,” mentioned Jerry Morrison, the now-retired assistant to the president of SEIU Native 1, referring to SEIU. “I can’t think about a state of affairs the place they’re with the mayor in his re-election.”
One other SEIU supply mentioned there’s “zero probability” that the union will likely be on board to assist Johnson win a second time period.
“Our membership is usually disgusted with the best way he’s operating town. And he’s achieved nothing to advance our labor points,” the supply mentioned, pointing to unsettled SEIU contracts with crossing guards and metropolis election board workers, in addition to an ongoing dispute between SEIU and the Chicago Lecturers Union.
SEIU has accused the CTU of crafting contract proposals that might practice trainer assistants to do work presently achieved by members of SEIU Native 73, doubtlessly diminishing the union’s future ranks. SEIU Native 73 went as far as to signal onto an inner SEIU-wide decision declaring itself “beneath assault” by CTU.
“This isn’t one thing that allies and pals do to 1 one other within the labor motion,” mentioned Morrison, a veteran political organizer. “It’s fairly extraordinary. The mayor is seen as complicit in it.”
Johnson is a former center college trainer who served as a paid organizer for CTU earlier than turning into mayor.
Feud between CTU and SEIU removed from over
In January, three SEIU presidents — Greg Kelley of SEIU Well being Care, Native 1’s Genie Kastrup and Dian Palmer of SEIU Native 73 — met with Johnson and senior mayoral adviser Jason Lee and urged the mayor to strain CTU to face down. Johnson refused.
“We have been hopeful to get some decision to the issue,” Kelley informed the Solar-Instances.
Kelley mentioned SEIU’s absence from the host committee for Johnson’s fundraiser “speaks for itself,” however there was “no dialogue” about whom the union will help within the 2027 mayoral election.
“That’s approach too far sooner or later,” Kelley mentioned. Bailey Koch, spokesperson for SEIU Native 1, added that the union “believes it’s too quickly to find out the perfect candidate for the working households of town.”
Johnson’s political director, Christian Perry, denied that SEIU’s absence from the host committee spells bother for the mayor.
“CTU and SEIU are household. They’ve been household. And I feel they are going to proceed to be household,” Perry mentioned.
Johnson has “deep roots in each organizations” and has “fought, protected and cared for each unions,” Perry mentioned. “I see negotiations going down. That’s what I see. And I see a mayor who’s dedicated to conserving the household collectively.”
CTU can also be lacking from the host committee, however that’s solely as a result of the union continues to be hammering out the ultimate particulars of its hard-fought contract with Chicago Public Colleges.
The CTU’s mother or father union, the Illinois Federation of Lecturers, is listed as one of many fundraising hosts.
“I don’t go to events till my contract is completed,” CTU President Stacy Davis Gates was quoted as saying in an announcement despatched to the Solar-Instances.
With out the monetary muscle of SEIU and CTU, Johnson wouldn’t have vaulted from single-digit obscurity to the fifth flooring of Metropolis Corridor.
SEIU associates collectively donated over $4.5 million to Johnson’s marketing campaign. The union additionally supplied scores of marketing campaign employees and supplies. The CTU contributed one other $2.3 million to Johnson’s marketing campaign. State and nationwide lecturers unions gave one other $3.3 million.
Now Johnson is tackling his single-digit standing in public opinion polls. He’s been touting his accomplishments at Black church buildings and on Black radio, as he did for almost an hour this week on WVON.
But when the struggle inside his progressive union coalition continues, probabilities for that political resurrection are slim, Morrison mentioned.
“He wouldn’t be mayor with out both one of many unions. Now that coalition has damaged aside. I don’t see what he has left,” Morrison mentioned.
Requested whether or not Johnson can win with out SEIU, Perry pointed to what he known as the “assault on Democratic values and progress on this nation.”
“I’ve little question that, when it comes time to face up for Chicago and get behind the perfect candidate to make sure that Chicago retains being a bastion of hope shifting ahead with progressive beliefs and values, identical to (two and a half) years in the past, you will notice SEIU and CTU standing collectively,” Perry mentioned.
