The Strike is Over

[YankeeFan]

A 10-year strike at the Congress Plaza hotel in downtown Chicago -- believed to be the longest hotel strike in the world --has ended.

An attorney for the hotel said Unite Here Local 1, the union representing cleaning and maintenance workers, has offered an unconditional return to work as of midnight Wednesday. The union confirmed Thursday morning that it is ending the strike.

"The decision to end the Congress strike was a hard one, but it is the right time for the union and the strikers to move on," Unite Here Local 1 President Henry Tamarin said in a statement. "The boycott has effectively and dramatically reduced the hotel’s business. ... There is no more to do there."

The next step is still in question. Many of the 130 workers that originally went on strike have found new jobs or crossed the picket line and returned to work at Congress Plaza. If any strikers choose to come back to Congress as part of the "unconditional" return, terms call for them to be paid the same as they did more than a decade ago.

Tamarin said when the strike started, the standard wage for room attendants was $8.83 per hour -- a wage contract workers still make. The city wide standard for room attendants is now $16.40 an hour, he said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-congress-plaza-hotel-strike-20130530,0,2075347.story

 

[old_tony]

I eagerly await the statement from union leaders of how much they accomplished for their members.

 

[Uncle.Ruckus]

Your empathy for the working man is duly noted.

 

[DanOregon]

Stayed there with my dad (pre-strike of course). Legendary hotel. Teddy Roosevelt stayed there during his 1912 attempt at the Republican nomination.

 

[LongTimeListener]

In one of the lawsuit's examples, Congress alleged that the union sent a "cow pie valentine" -- a heart shaped box filled with dry cow manure -- to the offices of The National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, which was considering hosting a conference at the hotel. The center held its conference as scheduled, but the Congress Plaza said that the stunt reduced its expected related bookings.

 

[Captain Obvious]

In one of the lawsuit's examples, Congress alleged that the union sent a "cow pie valentine" -- a heart shaped box filled with dry cow manure -- to the offices of The National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, which was considering hosting a conference at the hotel. The center held its conference as scheduled, but the Congress Plaza said that the stunt reduced its expected related bookings.

Didn't know Drip worked for the union there.

 

[Mark2010]

Tamarin said when the strike started, the standard wage for room attendants was $8.83 per hour -- a wage contract workers still make. The city wide standard for room attendants is now $16.40 an hour, he said.

That's considerably more than a lot of journalists make.

 

[Uncle.Ruckus]

Tamarin said when the strike started, the standard wage for room attendants was $8.83 per hour -- a wage contract workers still make. The city wide standard for room attendants is now $16.40 an hour, he said.

That's considerably more than a lot of journalists make.

Not in Chicago.

 

[YankeeFan]

Your empathy for the working man is duly noted.

I just thought the similarity to Kramer's strike of H&H bagels was funny.

 

[Starman]

I see the end zone dance for the champions of capitalism continues. You go, boys.

 

[LongTimeListener]

And more Chicagoans make it back to work before Derrick Rose.

 

[old_tony]

Your empathy for the working man is duly noted.

Some of us understand the Grand Canyon difference between "working man" and "union member screwed over once again by terrible union leadership."

 

[dooley_womack1]

Which in your mind is "all union leadership"

 

[deskslave]

No turndown no turndown no turndown!

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Speaking of great labor union leadership.

Union fat cat Mark Rosenthal spends more time sleeping at his desk than organizing labor, a series of damning photos reveals.
The 400-pound president of Local 983 of District Council 37 — the city’s largest blue-collar municipal-workers union — often downs a huge meal, then drops into dreamland in the early afternoon, members of the union’s executive board told The Post.
“He eats lunch when he arrives at work at 2 p.m. Then, like clockwork, he goes to sleep with a cup of soda on the table and the straw in it,” said Marvin Robbins, a union vice president.
“Then he wakes up, looks at his watch and says, ‘I have to get out before the traffic gets bad.’ He’s usually out by 4 p.m. after being at the office two hours.”

Rosenthal is a former Parks Department employee who rose to power campaigning to rid the union of corruption in the late 1990s.
He last made embarrassing headlines in 2009, when he inspired a City Council bill requiring jumbo-size ambulances for morbidly obese patients after he had a stroke at City Hall.
Since then, he hasn’t been making much of an effort to give the city’s ambulances a break and slim down. Union officials say he racks up $1,400 in monthly food bills on the union dime.
Much of the 5-foot-7, 400-plus-pound Rosenthal’s food tabs are for catered union events and meals he writes off as “union business,” board members claim.
They say he significantly overorders at eateries like Dallas BBQ, the Stage Door Deli and Pine Restaurant in The Bronx, a hangout for local politicians, and takes the extra food back to his Bronxdale apartment.
“He’s always walking off with a doggie bag or extra boxes of food,” said another executive board member.
Rosenthal, who earns $156,000 annually, yesterday denied being a free spender— and insisted he works “12-to-14-hour days.”
He says the allegations are “part of a smear campaign” by a faction trying to get another Local 983 vice president, Joseph Puleo, elected president in a June 5 showdown.
He said it’s normal for executives to take “power naps.”

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/labor_big_real_heavy_sleeper_jl3C7gI710FI3XqpEl5o3O

 

[poindexter]

Anybody remember the old Frontier casino in Vegas? The prep cooks were on strike for 7 years from 1991 to 1998. I used to go to Vegas a lot at that time. Damn it was impressive to see those people sorta picketing year after year after year.

The guys on the bullhorn could be pretty funny.