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As Mayor Brandon Johnson has shaken hands in church pews and given booming speeches in school auditoriums while selling his 2026 budget plan directly to Chicagoans, one color has been notably muted among his supporters: purple.

That’s the signature hue of the Service Employees International Union, whose local affiliates were Johnson’s second-biggest labor backer in his 2023 election. Instead, the self-styled “most pro-worker mayor” in Chicago’s history has only seen one union vociferously cheer his $16.6 billion proposal, despite his hard line against layoffs: the red-shirted Chicago Teachers Union.

It’s a sign of the times after a “fissure” between the once-close SEIU and CTU has grown into a full-blown “fracture,” said Ald. Desmon Yancy

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