Judging Freedom - Chicago parents sue teachers union over canceled classes

Episode Date: January 10, 2022

A group of Chicago parents is suing the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) after teachers refused to return to in-person instruction due to COVID-19 concerns and school officials canceled classes entirely. Judge Napolitano breaks it all down. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone, Judging Freedom, Judge Andrew Napolitano here. One of my pop-ups, we just learned, even though this happened a few days ago, that a group of parents has sued the mayor and the school board in the city of Chicago. Why is that significant? First of all, today is Monday, January 10th, 2022. There have been no schools and the schools have not been open in the city of Chicago for four school days now, even though the mayor and the Board of Education have declared that they are open. The reason they're not open is because the Chicago Teachers Union has voted not to show up for work because they're worried that they're going to get sick and the students are going to get sick. And so the Chicago Teachers Union has decided that the schools will operate remotely. Listen, I respect the right to unionize and sometimes I agree with these unions, but this is wrong.

It's wrong for several reasons. First of all, the teachers union doesn't operate the schools, the board of education does. And secondly, teachers and all public union members in the city of Chicago and most major cities in the United States cannot go on strike. So the teachers union will say, well, it's not a strike. We didn't vote for a strike and we didn't declare a strike. Well, guess what? You're not showing up for work. Tens of thousands of teachers are not showing up for work. It's a de facto strike. What can the mayor do? Well, she can't fire these people. I mean, she could fire them, but where is she going to find enough people to replace them in this crisis? So the right thing is to go to the courts.

The mayor should go to the courts, but she's not. A group of teachers is doing so, and they have hired a very fine and gifted team of lawyers who specialize in this area of preventing tyranny by labor unions. The last time this group of lawyers did this, they prevailed in the Supreme Court of the United States, which basically said, if you're a member of a labor union and the union is taking your dues and spending it on political causes with which you disagree, you don't have to pay that portion of the dues. So I think these

lawyers know exactly what they're doing. They need and will probably get a determination by a judge in Chicago that the failure of the teachers to show up is a de facto strike, and a de facto strike is unlawful, and he'll then order them or she will order them to go to work. And if they don't, then the teachers union will be fined and the fines will be heavy enough to get them back to work. That's the way the system works. This should be instigated by the mayor rather than by the parents.

But these parents have had enough with teachers unions running the schools. We'll see what happens. Judge Napolitano, judging freedom.