By Townhall Chicago News Staff
Two Service Employees International Union locals representing about 50,000 Chicago workers endorsed Alexi Giannoulias for mayor on Tuesday, dropping their support for Mayor Brandon Johnson.
SEIU Locals 1 and 73 backed Johnson in his last mayoral campaign. The switch marks a break in the labor coalition that helped elect him and comes as his administration pushes a new city budget.
“We have members all over the city of Chicago that we got together and we interviewed both candidates, and Alexi Giannoulias was the candidate that our members selected,” an SEIU spokesperson said in remarks aired Tuesday. The spokesperson was not identified by name in the broadcast.
The two locals represent workers across multiple sectors in the city. The spokesperson said the decision followed a process in which members heard directly from both Johnson and Giannoulias before voting on an endorsement.
Neither the Johnson administration nor the Giannoulias campaign commented on the endorsement in the material reviewed for this report.
The endorsement was announced the same week Johnson unveiled a $17.6 billion budget that includes a revived $25-per-employee monthly tax on large businesses. City aldermen have already criticized several of the budget’s revenue proposals, calling some of them “dead on arrival.”
It was not clear from the broadcast whether other unions that backed Johnson in his first campaign plan to follow SEIU’s lead. No date for the next mayoral election was given in the broadcast audio.
The shift gives Giannoulias a significant organizing and turnout resource heading into the race, while Johnson’s campaign faces the loss of one of the labor groups that helped put him in office.
The two SEIU locals cover employees across a range of workplaces in Chicago, making their combined membership one of the larger labor blocs in city politics. Union endorsements have historically played a significant role in Chicago mayoral campaigns, providing canvassing volunteers and get-out-the-vote operations.
Johnson’s 2023 mayoral campaign relied heavily on support from organized labor, including service and teachers unions. Tuesday’s endorsement announcement did not address whether other unions that previously backed Johnson are reconsidering their support.
The broadcast report did not include additional detail on when members voted on the endorsement or how many participated in the process the spokesperson described.
Giannoulias has not previously held elected city office in Chicago but has run citywide before. The broadcast did not provide further biographical detail on him or outline his platform beyond the union’s statement of support. City Hall observers cited in the broadcast described the endorsement as a sign of friction inside the coalition that elected Johnson.
