Troublemakers School a Hit with Chicago Activists
Jenn Johnson from the Chicago Teachers Union and James Thindwa from In These Times address a workshop on labor's political agenda in Chicago. Photo: CTU.
As employers and politicians slash budgets, squeeze workers, and target union rights, labor activists are searching for answers. Two hundred found some in the tactics, strategies, tools, and sources of inspiration shared at the Labor Notes Troublemakers School May 21 in Chicago.
Attendees came heavily from education and other public sector unions—Chicago Teachers Union, AFSCME, University of Illinois graduate employees—but Teamsters, Electrical Workers (IBEW), and worker centers such as ARISE came as well.
The event opened with a “Lessons from Wisconsin” plenary, where Madison teachers union president Peggy Coyne pointed out that students actually ignited the Wisconsin movement.
High school students in Madison and elsewhere walked out en masse when they learned their teachers’ rights were under fire, while graduate teaching assistants from the University of Wisconsin launched the occupation inside the statehouse.
Madison building trades council leader Eric Cobb remarked on another lesson: the powe
