* Crain’s has a story online about how Mayor Rahm Emanuel is “stepping up efforts to keep CME Group Inc. from moving out of town” because of its high tax burden. Emanuel told the magazine’s editorial board yesterday that he has repeatedly met with CME Chairman/CEO Terrence Duffy…

“They came and asked me to help them in Springfield. That’s what I’m doing,” Mr. Emanuel said. “One company should not represent 6% of the corporate income tax (payments).”

But this is what caught my eye…

The mayor declined to be drawn into a discussion of rumors that Mr. Duffy increasingly is frustrated that Gov. Pat Quinn has not yet presented a plan to help the exchange. “I’m not answering any hypotheticals,” he said, adding, “I’m working on” getting the company relief in Springfield.

I checked around yesterday and, indeed, Duffy is upset at Quinn for not getting off the dime. I called Gov. Pat Quinn’s spokesperson yesterday, but didn’t receive a return call. I’ll let you know if they see this post and want to say something.

* Duffy was on Jack Bouroudjian’s radio show yesterday and talked about moving…

“We have very viable alternatives. The traders can stay wherever they want, but the company can certainly go to wherever it suits its best interests…

“Being a good steward [of shareholders’ money] is not paying six percent of the aggregate tax bill of the state of Illinois in corporate taxes. We are the number one taxpayer in the entire state of Illinois… but we are far from the largest company in the state of Illinois.”

Duffy also explained why his company is paying state income taxes even though people are trading out of state, or even out of country…

“We dont’ know who our ultimate end user client is. They have to go through one of our [intermediaries]… so we don’t know who their clients are. So, their client could be trading out of Mumbai or trading out of Asia, but because of the apportionment laws in Illinois, we are getting taxed on all those particular trades. They have to have the mailing addresses where our clearing entity is. Our clearing entity happens to be in Illinois.”

His conclusion…

“First, they don’t deserve these tax dollars, but we are being treated completely unfairly.

Audio…

Click to download

* Meanwhile, the UAW has reached a contract agreement with Chrysler. If ratified, Illinois will be in line for some new investment at the company’s Belvidere plant.

But Ford’s workers are balking…

Members of Ford Motor Co.’s UAW locals are being instructed to prepare to strike as votes to ratify a proposed labor contract have turned sour.

Rejection of the pact would undo the company’s plan to add at least 1,100 jobs through a third shift at its Torrence Avenue plant on Chicago’s Far South Side as part of pledge to hire 12,000 workers nationwide over the life of the four-year contract. […]

In the first ratification vote Tuesday, workers at one of the Ford’s two assembly plants in Wayne, Mich. rejected the pact, with 51.1% of them voting no. The UAW Local 900 represents nearly 4,000 workers in Wayne. […]

“If we strike, they will use whatever resources necessary to continue operating their plants including the use of scab labor.” [according to a Facebook post by the UAW’s Ford Department.]

But don’t panic yet…

Another Chicago-area union member characterized the strike call as a typical bargaining tactic. “Chicago is in the process of voting,” said the member. “They were picked to do an early vote with the hopes of turning it around to use as a tactic for reassurance to vote for it.”

A strike at Ford involving scab labor would be a gigantic mess for everyone involved.

*** UPDATE *** Uh-oh…

Workers at Ford Motor Co.’s Chicago assembly plant voted overwhelmingly to reject a tentative four-year contract agreement with the automaker — setting the stage for a possible national strike, said a local union official early Thursday.

Seventy-seven percent of 2,317 workers at the Torrence Avenue plant who voted rejected the contract, said Grant Morton, United Auto Workers Union Local 551 plant chairman. The plant employs 2,700 UAW workers.

With the Chicago voting results in, the contract proposal now has more no votes than yes votes nationally, Morton said.

“We were given direction earlier today to prepare for a strike,” said Morton, who added the national union’s executive board will take a strike authorization vote if the deal is rejected nationally.

But union leaders have said the Ford offer was a good deal.

* Related…

* Sears’ request for tax breaks pits town against schools

* Hoffman Estates Approves Resolution To Keep Retailer In State

* CME’s Duffy: Tax on Trading Would Raise Food Prices

* Video: Emanuel on TIF, pensions, CME and what his budget means for Chicago business