Two locals of the Service Employees International Union have endorsed Alexi Giannoulias for Chicago mayor, the clearest sign yet that Mayor Brandon Johnson couldn’t heal the fracture in the progressive labor movement that got him elected over three years ago.
SEIU’s Local 1 and Local 73 chapters encompass about 50,000 workers in Chicago, including employees in schools, parks, airports and office buildings. Their announcement after an endorsement vote Monday makes official what local political insiders have observed for years now: Johnson’s second-biggest labor ally from 2023 has left his tent and is joining hands with Giannoulias, currently the Illinois secretary of state.
“Chicago doesn’t run without us,” Local 73 President Dian Palmer wrote in a statement before listing the different types of public employees represented among her members. “Every one of those contracts is up for negotiation in 2027, and we are going to walk into those rooms with a Mayor who has our backs. That’s Alexi Giannoulias.”
Local 1 president Genie Kastrup applauded Giannoulias for backing state legislation that gave a collective bargaining pathway for Illinois rideshare drivers, whom the chapter is in the midst of organizing.
“He stood up to powerful corporations, brought key stakeholders together, and helped pave the way for the largest private-sector organizing drive in Illinois history,” Kastrup wrote. “Working families are struggling to keep up with rising costs, and they deserve a mayor who understands that a stronger Chicago starts with putting more money into the pockets of the people who keep our city running.”
The locals cited Giannoulias’ support for a $22 minimum wage in Chicago, a policy allowing motorists who are not U.S. citizens to acquire a standard Illinois driver’s license and his work to negotiate what they described as a “historic” labor contract for workers that Local 73 represents in the Secretary of State’s office.
“SEIU members care for our families, strengthen our communities, and make Chicago work,” Giannoulias wrote in a statement following the endorsement vote. “They deserve a mayor who will stand shoulder to shoulder with them, fight for better wages and benefits, and put working people at the center of every decision at City Hall.”
Tuesday’s announcement sought to play up Giannoulias’ bona fides as a friend of labor. But it was also illustrative of how deep the divisions among the city’s left have grown since Johnson, who cut his teeth as an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, was sworn in as mayor.
The two labor juggernauts worked hand-in-hand to elect Chicago’s most progressive mayor in decades and were often the force behind left-leaning rallies smattered with a fusion of red and purple shirts, CTU and SEIU’s respective colors. Now, in addition to the mayoral clash, they are backing opposing candidates for the school board president race this November.
The saga between the former allies is winding and often personal, but it also boils down to simple arithmetic. Labor organizations grow mightier with more members, which is partly why the proposed CTU contract language that SEIU said would essentially take Chicago Public Schools special education classroom assistant jobs represented by Local 73 and give them to the teachers’ union has made their relationship fall to pieces. The turf war even led to SEIU’s state council last year declaring itself “under attack” by the CTU.
It also aided a reality in which a left-leaning labor group is joining forces with a cadre of billionaire donors who are helping bankroll Giannoulias’s mayoral run, though he has enjoyed support from SEIU as the recent candidate and current office-holder of the Secretary of State seat.
In response to the endorsement, Johnson campaign manager Christian Perry said in a statement Tuesday that “Mayor Johnson was elected to represent all of Chicago and ran on a platform to prioritize working people and their families.”
“His administration has prioritized workers and centered the folks in this city that past administrations deemed unworthy of investment and has hired more young people, re-opened more mental health clinics, built more affordable housing and invested more in our public school system than previous administrations,” Perry said. “All while making Chicago safer.”
Missing from the joint announcement was SEIU Healthcare, which has yet to weigh in on the mayoral race. The mayor has tapped Jessica Angus, a former Healthcare leader, as his campaign operations director. He also carved out a $7 million subsidy for childcare workers, who are represented by that local, in the city’s budget.
In the 2023 election, SEIU poured $4.5 million into Johnson’s campaign, while CTU and affiliates spent $5.5 million. Subtracting Healthcare, the SEIU coffers contributed $2.7 million to Johnson.
Local 73 was the first local SEIU chapter to endorse Johnson in November 2022, followed by Healthcare days later and Local 1 not until the March 2023 runoff.
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This time around, Local 1 sent out a “Cost of Mayor Johnson” memo pointing to hundreds of job losses it says the union suffered under the Johnson administration, including janitors at CPS and City Hall and security guards on the CTA. The majority of those jobs were in the school district, which is experiencing a severe budget crunch with no easy way out.
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From SEIU’s vantage point, the union questioned why it had to be their members sacrificed.
“Brandon Johnson cannot claim to advance racial and economic justice while balancing our city’s budget on the backs of the Black and brown workers who keep it running,” the Local 1 memo says.
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Local 73’s memo featured a complaint about the latest CPS budget because Johnson-aligned school board members included a line-item for future Springfield revenue, which the union says puts the livelihoods of support staff at risk.
For his part, Johnson had one answer when asked this summer about the prospect of a CTU and SEIU breakup under his watch: “I’m running the city of Chicago. I’m not running labor.”
The split has not gone unnoticed by progressive Ald. Jeanette Taylor, who said this July there lacks “balance” between how their memberships have fared.
“That math ain’t mathing,” Taylor, 20th, said during an appearance on the “Victim or Villain” podcast. “I think it’s just a matter of (SEIU) feeling like CTU is listened to more.”
As they enter Giannoulias’ camp, the SEIU locals are also aligning themselves with more politically moderate trade unions that have already helped fill the candidate’s war chest. They were split in the first round of the last mayoral election but largely coalesced around Johnson challenger Paul Vallas in the runoff.
By cozying up to labor, Giannoulias runs the risk of appearing beholden to city workers at the expense of the rest of Chicago. He’s promised to hold the line on property taxes and focus on “efficiencies,” but payroll costs make up the largest expense in the city’s operating budget.