Obama to hit Chicago picket line Monday

Hmmmmm, my nieces have worked at a fast food restuaruant for six months (nonunion, of ocurse) and their pay the whole time has been higher if they were to get a job at the unionized Jewel Food Store. Funny how that works.

John D.,

Does that include their benefit package?

Call me silly, but I always thought that if your work for a company, WORK FOR IT. If you think the deal is not that great and it is possible to do better, do what the rest of the world does. Type up a resume and look for a better deal. One of two things will happen. 1.)You will find a better deal and take it or 2) You will find that the deal you now have is the best available and happily stay.

I know where I'm staying next time I go to Chicago...the Congress Hotel.

I think the "Swamp" ought to get credit for reporting all aspects of politics, shifting in its last three posts from an article about Obama's fundraising, to an article about Obama at a church, to an article about Obama on a picket line.

Keep it up, boys!

Sure your nieces make a good wage in fast food. But, are they trying to pay rent, take care of a family and get health care?

Chicago is the heart and soul of American trade unionism.

If you like:

The 8 hour work day.
Time and a half after 40 hours worked.
The end of child labor.
Workplace safety protection laws.
Paid vacations.
Paid sick days.
Company sponsored health insurance.
Company sponsored pension plans.

Thank American trade unionism, they led the way.

JohnD, when people get non-union jobs in union towns, the pay is always a little higher. And you can thank the unions for it because the non-union shop has to boost wages to keep workers.

Doug:

What benefit package?

I'd like to know if John D's nieces have a fixed schedule, get their insurance through work, and have paid time off.

John D, your little scenario does not prove anything. Collective bargaining has been the heart and soul of American labor since the 30's. Unionized labor has kept America strong because of it's role in dignifying workers and protecting the individual from predacious capitalists. The consequence of union organizations has been a higher standard of living, decline in descrimination, improvement in work place safety. And Mark Tillman, does over-simplification hold your key to success?

Paid time off at Jewel? No longer exists for most part timers.
Health benefits at Jewel? No longer exists for most part-timers unless they have been there a minimum of two years and work a certain minimum of hours per week.
Hmmm, a few years ago I worked part-time at Brooks Brothers becuase i wanted to and wanted extra money. No union, but even though part time, I did get paid time off, health care (full-time job covered that so it was not necessary), and of course mega-discounts on clothing.
Fixed schedule at Jewel? Never existed.
Folks I worked at Jewel, which paid my way through college in 1980s. I have friends who are in management today at Jewel. The pay and benefits at Jewel of 20+ years ago no longer exists today, though workers still must pay their union dues.
No, at fast food, my 16-year-old, soon-to-be-juniors do not get paid time off or health care. They do get ocvered by their parents though in health care.

There are other fields in which increasingly often nonunion workers do better than their unionized counterparts.Unions played a role and still can, but in most respects their need has passed and most are corrupt anyway.

John D.,

"...most are corrupt anyway."

John, no they're not.

John D.,

"...most are corrupt anyway."

John, no they're not.

hmmm, Doug, yes.

http://www.nlpc.org/artindx.asp

Hey Kyle,

I hope you do stay at the Congress. It's by far the nastiest, dirtiest, most vermin filled hotel in the Loop.

Congress management doesn't care about their property any more than they care about the fact that their workers are making almost half of what other union hotel workers are making in the city.

Sweet dreams.

Trade unions were legalized in the USA in the 1930's because the employers were abusing, killing them and every other imaginable wrong to their workers. That's why the unions were necessary in the first place. The really WERE necessary to correct the problems. Then, during the 1950's, at the height of trade union power, many of the unions bacame so corrupt they started abusing their members, too (Remember Jimmy Hoffa & the Teamsters/Mafia links, anyone?. So, the govt. passed the Landrum-Griffin Act to protect workers against the unions. As the unions grew and prospered, they became just as rotten as the employers had been historcially. To the union supporters: go check the historic population of union members and percentage of workers represented by unions. You'll see it's been a long, slow decline ever since the 1950s & 1960s. Why? Because they are mostly not needed any more. They served their purpose. The right to unionize should definitely still be there to counter rotten employers. The fact that the Congress Hotel has opperated so long during the "crippling strike" is proof enough that the union there is dead. Obama is taking a leaf from the Jesse Jackson / Al Sharpton page of politics which is to show up and be visible at ridiculous and lost causes because it gets free tv. Shame on you Barak Obama. Shame on you for using these people for your camera time. Cad.

If you don't like your job, go get another one!! I'd stay at the Congress, unions are communist and corupt!

Ted,

Your link to an anti-union web site does not a convincing arguement make.

Let's narrow it down.

Demonstrate with logic, reason and evidence how SEIU Local 1, the largest and most influentual union in Illinois is corrupt?

If you need a little lesson in the Union movement, I suggest renting the movie Matewan. It is a good movie about the plight of mine workers who were starting to unionize.

Oh Doogie, come on now, you gonna tell us most unions are not corrupt? How many union officials have gone to jail? How many pilfered funds from the union members? How many high-ranking union officials make money that their members would never see?

Doug, here are some links for you:

http://www.nrtwc.org/blog/topics/general/union-corruption/

http://www.ncpa.org/pd/unions/pduni/sept98b.html

Look at those salaries, Doug! Over $1 million a year and still pilfering money from the members!!

Anyway, I will give unions credit for bringing about safer work environments and even some other fronts.

But there are reasons many workers resist and do not want union representation. Unions also have been guilty for their role of losing manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

John D.,

Your belief in something does not make it so.

Pick a recent example of a Chicago area union's corruption and spell it out.

Been there, done that.

Today's unions suck and phonies like Obama claim to be pro-labor but would shift positions for the right contribution.

As an employee of SEIU a few years back, I was fired for trying to organize a staff union at one of its locals. Go figure that one out. A union-busting union.

Most recently I have been a Teamster with the BLET. If it weren't for my local chairman, there'd be not one honest soul in that whole crooked operation.

Organized labor is a great ideal and made great contributions to American workers in the past, but today's unions have either no balls or no scruples. Kind of like a politician.

Just say NObama!

John, your two links are biased. In fact they are in existence to promote disinformation against unions.
As for your other comments about corruption and costs, I just have to say Enron, Haliburton, the Catholic Church etc.

Rey Flores,

Which local? What happened when you filed the ULP?

I'd like to see some of you try to live on a $5.00 an hour salary. Many years ago I was a waitress in a hotel that paid us less than minimum wage because they claimed we would make up the difference in tips. Well, the tips were inconsistent, to say the least, depending on which shifts you worked that week. Many of these people have families and no benefits, and what, you think they're lesser human beings than you are because they're less skilled? Come down off your high horse!

Doug and Catherine, these are facts, not biases:

A former secretary-treasurer of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, Joseph C. Talarico -- whose salary was more than $1 million a year -- was sentenced in July to 30 months in federal prison for embezzling more than $925,000 from union members.

Frederick Devine, the ousted president of New York City's District Council of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, was sentenced to up to four years in federal prison last month for squandering $175,000 in union funds on golf trips, car rentals and expensive dinners.

Thomas W. Waters and Barbara T. Wood, district council members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Washington, pleaded guilty in July to embezzling more than $830,000 from union coffers.

And, Doug, if I am not mistaken it wasn't too many years ago when a leader of the UCFW in Chicago did go to prison for corruption.

And Linda D., no $5 is not enough to raise a family. Nor is $7.50 an hour. Nor is $10 an hour. Heck, even $15 an hour is not enough to raise a family of four.
So, Linda D. and the rest of the Left, what is a livable wage? $15 an hour? $20 an hour? And then what happens to that $1 cheeseburger at McDonalds? Or even the $5 chicken salad at Burger King? What about that $2 bottle of shampoo at Wal-Mart?
There are jobs not meant for raising families. There are jobs largely meant for teenagers to begin working and gaining experience. Some jobs require more pay.
While I always tip well, it's much easier to be a waitress/waiter than it is corporate CEO, treasurer, etc. Professional athletes in part get paid well because we cannot play baseball, football etc.
A friend of mine who is a treasurer for a large Chicago firm still spent up to two hours a day while on vacation in Hawaii working. Sorry, but many workers do not work while on vacation.

And Johnnny E says he works for Illinois? Really? Once again, more waste of taxpayer money, if true.

John D must be a happy DuPage County Republicrap Party member - or, at the very least - from Kane or Lake Counties.

Reality in Chicago: Unions are King.

Like the concept of weekends ?

Thank a trade unionist.

I'm embarassed I let myself get side tracked like this.

What's really important here is that Barack Obama is a stand up guy walking the walk.

JohnD, just because you list a few instances of corruption does not mean that all unions and union leaders are corrupt.

Under your logic, based on the following FACTS, most Republican politicans practice infidelity and drug use.

- Thomas Ravenel, a Republican state legislator and the head of Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign in South Carolina was indicted by a federal grand jury for distributing cocaine.
-U.S. Senator Favid Vitter, a Republican, admitted what he called a "serious sin" in his past after his name surfaced on the list of callers to the 'D.C. Madame.'

Johnny , corporations corrupt? How many CEO's have gone to jail? Heck just look at Enron right? More examples there alone than you showed of union corruption, so the whole of the corporate world can be written off as corrupt using your infallible logic, right?

Johnny, why should the american taxpayer subsidize "corrupt (by your definition)" corporations like Wal-mart and MacDonalds when they don't pay their employees enough to live on? We pick up the slack in Public aid, food stamps etc, when those full time workers cannot support their families. Many time these are the only jobs breadwinners can get. Especially in small towns and rural areas where there are not a great number of employers to chose from.

The social programs you so revile often subsidize corporate profits in that way.

Tony, a job at Wal-Mart or McDonalds is not meant to pay people $20, $25 an hour. Those jobs always have been geared to pay minimum wage or slightly more. They are generally low-skill jobs, starter jobs or jobs in which people who choose to earn a few extra bucks can. Being a burger flipper or cashier at Wal-mart is not a career.

Also, you raise those wages and then the stores raise their prices. Suddenly that pay means nothing anymore.

And, no, not all union leaders or workers (meaning those who work at the union) are corrupt. In a previous life, I had interviewed Peg Seminario, director of safety and health for the AFL-CIO, who certainly is a committed union believer and an honest union worker. I may disagree with her on many things, but still admired her passion and leadership in the cause of workplace safety and health.

There are many great unions in chicago like the engineers, and electricians. These people deserve every penny of what they earn. Why? because they are SKILLED workers. Without these people buildings would not operate.

SEIU Local 1 is not one of those great SKILLED unions. You are talking about service employees. Anyone could get this job you don't need an education to work in the service industry.

This is not a socialist country where regardless of what you do you get the same pay. We live in a competitive market where the goal for companies to pay a wage based on demand that will allow them to get the most out of the worker in order to turn a profit otherwise why operate a business.

This union is corrupt and meaningless. By standing outside the hotel and yelling, shouting, and harassing the guests they are not getting anything accomplished. This scares the tourist and conventions out of Chicago. With out the tourist and convention business there will be no more service jobs. So who is losing out? I assure you the president of local 1 will have made his millions off the union dues by then and will be long gone on his yacht when all the hotels shut down because the union drives out all convention and tourism business out of Chicago.

The unions are pointless now because the state imposes minimum wage and labor laws so why is it necessary to have this union come in drive up wages on basic service jobs. This will ultimately lead to inflation.

Its a free country if you don't like your job go work somewhere else.

John, I am not disputing your facts. There are dishonest people everywhere in every field. Look at Duke Cunningham, Daniel MacCormack, Ken Lay, etc. Unions are still important if only to force corporations to be fair. Believe me, whoever your current boss is would pay you five bucks an hour if they could get away with it. Don't kid yourself.
I don't know why you anti-union dudes get so freaked any way. Only about 12% of workers are in unions. I don't know how they can be held responsible for what you guys think is wrong with America.

Rick,

The striking workers aren't represented by SEIU, they are represented by UNITE-HERE.

Back to SEIU. You read to much into "Service." While Local 1 does represent janitors, they also represent maintenance workers in both residential and commercial properties. The skill level required is such that Local 1 in collaboration with the employer association ABOMA (Apartment Building Owners and Managers Association) started a two year apprenticeship program to standardize the trade and to make it more effecient.

SEIU Local 1 also represents several suburban firefighter and public works employees.

Regarding leaving if you don't like it. The right to organize and strike is codified in both federal and state law. If you don't like that you are free to leave.

Catherine, I am not freaked out by unions and they have shrunk. There are lots of reasons for their shrinkage, of which some of it has been self-inflicted.
I will give some unions credit in that they continually train the workers, the electrical union workers being one of them. Unions also can provide some protections that non-union workers don't get to enjoy.
But unfortunately for many jobs in this country under distress such as American auto manufacturers, unions have played a role in the struggles of Ford, GM and Chrsler.
Also, too often unions protect incompetent workers at the expense of quality workers. The Chicago Teachers Union too often has been guilty of that.

But unfortunately for many jobs in this country under distress such as American auto manufacturers, unions have played a role in the struggles of Ford, GM and Chrsler.
Also, too often unions protect incompetent workers at the expense of quality workers. The Chicago Teachers Union too often has been guilty of that.

Posted by: John D | July 17, 2007 8:51 AM

John, one of the bigger problems the auto makers have is health care costs-something you and I are going to have to worry about big time when we retire. As far as incompetents being protected by union rules-show me any contract that states that workers can be incompetent and get away with it. They may not call themselves a labor union but the AMA has protected incompetents for years and even got legislation passed in many states to avoid accountability.

Well, Johnny what do you suggest for the bread winner in a small town where Wal-mart has driven most of the local retailers out of business, the local manufacturing plant has closed, so that the low paying job at Wal-mart is the only job available to him/her to feed their family?

You denigrate social relief programs as a waste. You call for spending cuts on those programs.

What do you tell that person, Johnny? Be happy with your pay, don't worry about if your kids don't get enough food/