The politically powerful Chicago Teachers Union can't escape a lawsuit accusing them of violating their members' rights by refusing to release years' worth of financial audits, allegedly in breach of their own governing rules.
On May 14, a Cook County judge rejected the CTU's bid to dismiss the lawsuit, as well as to strike from the record written testimony from the lead plaintiff, detailing scandalous accusations against the union concerning its alleged retaliation against him and other mistreatment for challenging the union's leaders.
The ruling means the CTU will need to either seek to settle the case or formally respond to the lawsuit and its allegations for the first time, and potentially open their records and communications to the plaintiffs as part of the discovery process in proceedings to come.
"The core allegations of the Complaint ... are sufficient," wrote Cook County Judge David Atkins in his order. "It is axiomatic that a complaint should only be dismissed where no set of facts would entitle a plaintiff to relief, and here Plaintiffs have alleged that the CTU is required by its Constitution to 'furnish an audited report of the Union which shall be printed in the Union's publication,'" but has failed to do so since 2020.
"The CTU does not even directly dispute this...," Atkins noted.
The case landed in Cook County court last October, when attorneys from the Liberty Justice Center, of Chicago, filed suit against the CTU on behalf of a group of Chicago Public Schools educators and staff, who are also members of the CTU.
The lawsuit also named as defendants CTU President Stacy Davis Gates and CTU Financial Secretary Maria Moreno.
Named plaintiffs include Philip Weiss, identified as CPS social worker who has worked for CPS since 1998; Bridget Cuevas, identified as a CPS teacher since 2012; Rosemary Swearingen, a primary diverse learning teacher at CPS since 2001; and Kenneth Meracle, a CPS social studies teacher since 2017.
“CTU members deserve to know where their money is going. After four years of silence, it’s time for transparency,” said Weiss in a statement released by the Liberty Justice Center at the time the lawsuit was filed. “This lawsuit isn’t just about us - it’s about the more than 25,000 educators across Chicago who rely on the union to uphold its commitments.”
The lawsuit notes under the CTU's contract and bylaws the union is obligated to "furnish an audited report of the Union which shall be printed in the Union's publication" and made available to all union members.
However, since 2020, the CTU under Gates and Moreno has failed to do so. The most recent report listed financials for an audit that covered the union's revenue and spending for 2018 and the first half of 2019.
According to the complaint, the four plaintiffs have repeatedly requested copies of the audit, but the union has ignored their requests. According to the complaint, Weiss made "multiple written requests" to CTU leadership "to publish copies of the audits which have been unanswered or ignored."
Before filing suit, plaintiffs and the Liberty Justice Center sent a demand letter to CTU leadership, again requesting the CTU release the missing audits to its members and notifying Gates and other CTU leaders of their intent to sue.
However, according to the Liberty Justice Center, CTU leadership instead chose to retaliate against the plaintiffs with threats and harassment, attempting to belittle their transparency requests as being "part of a 'right-wing' effort" associated with political organizations supporting President Donald Trump.
Gates and the CTU have emerged as central powerful figures in Chicago city politics following the election of CTU member Brandon Johnson as Chicago mayor.
According to published reports, the CTU and its allied teachers unions have emerged as the biggest spenders on Chicago politics, dropping millions into Chicago political campaigns in recent years.
In recent months, Johnson and his CTU allies have attempted to use various political maneuvers and other tactics to attempt to seize control of CPS and the new Chicago Board of Education.
Those maneuvers included the ouster of CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who had balked at what critics called exhorbitant contract demands from the CTU, including thousands of new hires and 9% annual cost-of-living adjustments for CTU members, plus billions more dollars in other forms of pay and benefit increases. Altogether, it was estimated the demands would amounted to as much as $14 billion in new spending on schools in Chicago.
Non-pay demands also were said to include 10,000 new affordable housing units and rent assistance, which have been estimated to be worth up to $4.7 billion and initiatives intended to fight so-called "climate change," including electric school buses and new solar power installations.
However, after suffering several costly losses in school board races, the CTU and CPS agreed in April on a new four-year contract, providing raises for teachers, the hiring of hundreds of new staff and lower class size limits, among other provisions. Altogether, the new contract is expected to cost taxpayers $1.5 billion through 2028.
As the CTU has increased its political machinations in recent years, the union has also steadfastly ignored some of its members' demands for transparency concerning how it is spending their dues.
The lawsuit focuses on the refusal by Gates and the CTU to comply with members' requests for annual audited financial reports, which the plaintiffs have said amounts to a breach of the contract between CTU leadership and their union members.
The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring the CTU to comply with the audit rules and release its annual audits for the years 2019-2023. They are not seeking any money damages, other than attorney fees and the costs of bringing the lawsuit.
In response, the CTU sought to dismiss the action, asserting they are not necessarily required to furnish the full reports, but only what the plaintiffs described in court documents as "self-prepared, summary reports that lack the necessary detail and independence to qualify as legitimate, independent audit reports."
CTU asserted those edited summary reports should satisfy the demand and moot the claims.
The union further argued the plaintiffs' decision not to demand any money damages, but only the release of the audits leaves the plaintiffs with no real remedy for their complaints.
The union also asserted the individual claims against Gates and Moreno should be dismissed, because they cannot be held personally liable for the union's alleged refusal under their leadership to honor the demands to release the audited financials.
And, in a separate motion, the CTU sought to strike written sworn testimony from Weiss, detailing the union's attempts to retaliate against him and other objectors.
In their motion to strike, the CTU asserted Weiss' sworn claims were politically motivated and "scandalous" and should not be allowed to remain in the record.
In his ruling, however, Judge Atkins disagreed, saying the claims in Weiss' declaration "go directly to the issue of what constitutes a proper audit report and whether such reports were provided to members in relevant years."
"At worst," the judge said, only one paragraph in the declaration "contains extraneous claims of political motivations" leveled against CTU and its leadership, "which even then need not be struck."
Concerning the motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Atkins agreed Gates and Moreno should be excused as individual defendants from the action.
But the case against the union itself should be allowed to continue, the judge said.
He ruled the parties' disagreement over whether the union actually satisfied its own governing rules when issuing "summary reports," rather than full audited financial reports, means the dispute should play out in court, and cannot be short-circuited.
The judge gave the union until June 16 to formally answer the complaint.
In comments to The Record following the ruling, Liberty Justice Center attorney Dean McGee said the ruling was "unambiguously a win for Chicago Teachers Union members" who are "seeking transparency" from union leadership concerning how the union spends members' dues.
The judge, McGee said, recognized Weiss and other CTU members are "entitled" to the audits under the CTU's own constitution.
McGee said he looked forward to the document discovery process, even though he expects the CTU will continue to attempt to "throw up roadblocks" in court, "just like they have so far."
McGee said he expects to issue subpoenas and other demands for documents and other evidence in coming weeks as the case moves forward.
McGee said he hoped the case can be completed in months, "not years," and without a trial.
"This was a great day for CTU members," McGee said.