Teachers Unions into the Twenty-First Century: Lessons from the Chicago Teachers Union Strike

The Chicago Teachers Union strike has been alternately characterized as a long awaited stand by organized labor and a self-serving choice to place teachers’ needs above students’. As educators deeply invested in the success of Chicago’s schools, we view both of these takes as simplistic and biased. Because teachers mediate among individual students’ needs, educational policies, and the realities of schools, their knowledge and interests are central to education generally. As they have in the past and still do in the present, teachers unions must continue evolving to remain indispensible to the pursuit of excellent, equitable schooling for all children.