Mayor Daley seems to be up against some of his aldermen on the issue of bucking the political pressure of the unions in Chicago. He's going on about how McCormick Place will be an "empty shell" because the unions make it so expensive for exhibitors to do business here. Meanwhile the aldermen (who successfully kept Wal-Mart out of the South Side by trying to force them to pay higher wages) are now trying to push through ordinances that would require hotels being targeted by labor actions to essentially tell potential visitors that they will be in for an unpleasant stay. The two unions involved couldn't be more different - the electricians and other trades at McPier are used to throwing their weight around and being insulated from much accountability, while the SEIU and its associated unions in "Unite Here" are trying to organize the lowest-status and least powerful workers in our battered economy into a political force to be reckoned with. But solidarity demands that these strange bedfellows support each other, and they've both gotten on the fighting side of Hizzoner.
I'm a former union steward with Local 73 of SEIU (which represents the toll collectors as well as assorted health care workers and some psychotherapists), but I have always had trouble with the tactics of a lot of union people. I've probably been hampered by a pesky ability to hold two opposing ideas in my mind at the same time, which plays havoc with solidarity. I hate the word "scab" and I think those Rat Patrol figures they park outside worksites are just asinine. But I have a certain respect for "the people who gave you weekends" and the Wobblies and Utah Philips and Pete Seeger. Anyway, I used the hotel story as a class discussion in my organizational consultation class to bring up conflcting priorities in trying to be socially responsible. So I got some mileage out of it. And since my employer has a contract with McPier for EAP services, I need to be diplomatic. Although I will say that a drunk electrician is a scary thing to contemplate.
Oh, and then there's Rev Meeks, who is taking on the teachers' union over accountability in public education and the need for school choice. He's got a really good point. Unions should never be about protecting mediocrity, but they should be about insuring fairness and avoiding exploitation of employees. And unions should not be about preserving jobs when the funding doesn't exist for them, only about making sure that the positions that are budgeted are handled fairly and without taking advantage of the employees. Sorry, as an EAP I don't want to diss AFSCME, since I know their EAP person. But as a taxpayer I don't think it's just to make all the taxpayers suffer in order to keep jobs for people that we can't afford to employ.
No black-and-white answers.
