A key political player is missing from a weekend birthday fundraiser that could serve as an unofficial launch for Mayor Brandon Johnson’s re-election campaign.
The host committee for the Fulton Market fundraiser does not include the Service Employees International Union or any of its affiliated unions. That’s a potent signal that the union helping bankroll and staff Johnson’s 2023 mayoral campaign is disenchanted with the embattled mayor, and may not support him for a second term.
The Saturday night event to celebrate Johnson’s 49th birthday is the mayor’s first major fundraiser since taking office. General admission tickets cost $250. The party will take place at at 167 Green Street, a basketball court-turned event space overlooking the Chicago skyline.
“I think they’re done with him. They don’t support him any longer,” said Jerry Morrison, the now-retired assistant to the president of SEIU Local 1, referring to SEIU. “I cannot imagine a scenario where they’re with the mayor in his re-election.”
Another SEIU source said there is “zero chance” that the union will be on board to help Johnson win a second term.
“Our membership is generally disgusted with the way he’s running the city. And he’s done nothing to advance our labor issues,” the source said, pointing to unsettled SEIU contracts with crossing guards and city election board employees, as well as an ongoing dispute between SEIU and the Chicago Teachers Union.
SEIU has accused the CTU of crafting contract proposals that would train teacher assistants to do work currently done by members of SEIU Local 73, potentially diminishing the union’s future ranks. SEIU Local 73 went so far as to and sign onto an internal SEIU-wide resolution declaring itself “under attack” by CTU.
“This is not something that allies and friends do to one another in the labor movement,” said Morrison, a veteran political organizer. “It’s pretty unheard of. The mayor is seen as complicit in it.”
Johnson is a former middle school teacher who served as a paid organizer for CTU before becoming mayor.
Feud between CTU and SEIU far from over
In January, three SEIU presidents — Greg Kelley of SEIU Health Care, Local 1’s Genie Kastrup and Diann Palmer of SEIU Local 73 — met with Johnson and senior mayoral adviser Jason Lee and urged the mayor to pressure CTU to stand down. Johnson refused.
“We were hopeful to get some resolution to the problem,” Kelley told the Sun-Times.
Kelley said SEIU’s absence from the host committee for Johnson’s fundraiser “speaks for itself,” but there has been “no discussion” about whom the union will support in the 2027 mayoral election.
“That’s way too far in the future,” Kelley said.
Johnson’s political director, Christian Perry, denied that SEIU’s absence from the host committee spells trouble for the mayor.
“CTU and SEIU are family. They’ve been family. And I think they will continue to be family,” Perry said.
Johnson has “deep roots in both organizations” and has “fought, protected and cared for both unions,” Perry said. “I see negotiations taking place. That’s what I see. And I see a mayor who is committed to keeping the family together.”
CTU is also missing from the host committee, but that’s only because the union is still hammering out the final details of its hard-fought contract with Chicago Public Schools.
The CTU’s parent union, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, is listed as one of the fundraising hosts.
“I don’t go to parties until my contract is done,” CTU President Stacy Davis Gates was quoted as saying in statement sent to the Sun-Times.
Without the financial muscle of SEIU and CTU, Johnson would not have vaulted from single-digit obscurity to the fifth floor of City Hall.
SEIU affiliates together donated over $4.5 million to Johnson’s campaign. The union also provided scores of campaign workers and materials. The CTU contributed another $2.3 million to Johnson’s campaign. State and national teachers unions gave another $3.3 million.
Now Johnson is tackling his single-digit standing in public opinion polls. He’s been touting his accomplishments at Black churches and on Black radio, as he did for nearly an hour this week on WVON.
But if the war within his progressive union coalition continues, chances for that political resurrection are slim, Morrison said.
“He wouldn’t be mayor without either one of the unions. Now that coalition has broken apart. I don’t see what he has left,” Morrison said.
Asked whether Johnson can win without SEIU, Perry said pointed to what he called the “attack on Democratic values and progress in this country.”
“I have no doubt that, when it comes time to stand up for Chicago and get behind the best candidate to ensure that Chicago keeps being a bastion of hope moving forward with progressive ideals and values, just like (two and half) years ago, you will see SEIU and CTU standing together,” Perry said.