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Labor trouble

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Senate President Emil Jones isn’t the only Illinois Democrat having trouble with labor unions.

The Chicago Federation of Labor’s dynamic president Dennis Gannon unloaded on Mayor Daley yesterday.

Chicago’s most powerful labor leader on Monday issued a thinly veiled warning to Mayor Daley: End the two-year-long negotiating stalemate with unions representing 20,000 city employees or risk the embarrassment that comes with labor unrest when Chicago plays host to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in June.

Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon turned up the heat even as he acknowledged that, after 64 bargaining sessions over 24 months, negotiators are finally making progress on work-rule changes and furlough days that Daley says he needs to save $20 million a year.

“If this was normal negotiations on the outside, we would have had this shut down [with a strike or job action]. We cut the city a lot of slack,” Gannon said during a news conference called to announce support from 20 community, business and religious groups.

“It’s not too long down the road here when we’re going to have the Conference of U.S. Mayors in the city of Chicago. I don’t think we want to see anything happen with that. . . . That’s not necessarily a threat [but] it’s something that’s in the back of everybody’s mind on our side. . . . The threat of a strike is a tool. Do we in the labor movement want to use that tool right now with the city? No. But, we want to put this contract to bed. Enough is enough.”

Gannon is an activist president who hasn’t hesitated to plunge in to controversial issues. He’s been arrested at more demonstrations than probably all of his predecessors combined. I don’t always agree with him, but I have a huge amount of respect for him, and if Daley doesn’t settle this contract he will undoubtedly have trouble at the mayors conference.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Apr 19, 05 @ 7:30 am

Comments

….or risk the embarrassment that comes with labor unrest when Chicago plays host to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in June.

Gentlemen, get the thing straight, once and for all: the unions aren’t there to ‘create’ disorder; the unions are there to ‘preserve’ disorder.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 19, 05 @ 9:01 am
ROFLMAO!!!!

Hilarious

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Apr 19, 05 @ 9:18 am
uh, has anyone ever noticed that most union members are indeed Caucasian, or as my momma called us, white folks?

is it just my perception or is it reality?

so maybe the unions need a little reality check…I think it is great news that the State won’t, in school construction projects financed by the CDB, just flat-out hand them to the “white guys”

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 19, 05 @ 9:23 am
I think the last well known black union carpenter was Jesus!

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 19, 05 @ 10:26 am
The slowest wick in town may be on fire! If it is, this will be a hot Spring for the folks in City Hall. Has Dennis Gannon finally tired of being kicked to the curb like a two-bit Tiajuana trollop? Will he be able to do to the Mayor what the Mayor has so often done to him: leave him standing naked on Front Street?

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 19, 05 @ 11:16 am
I’m scratching my head, considering that one of the union presidents that Daley has been negotiating with for so long in the city of Chicago is an African American male, and many members of the union he belongs to are of different ethnic backgrounds, this is interesting.

Yep, I agree there’s lots of “white folk” out there in the work force, I being one of them, but I count a good number of people from other ethnic backgrounds in the unions my friends. Last pictures I saw of a Chicago picket, we were the minority…..

Comment by Tessa Tuesday, Apr 19, 05 @ 4:50 pm
Last summer the Boston unions tried to do the same thing against Mayor Menino during the Democratic National Convention. The Nat’l Conf of Mayors are all used to it — heck they all have similar issues with their unions. There’s no way the unions could hurt the mayor with his colleagues, he’d get a standing O.

Comment by Beantowner Tuesday, Apr 19, 05 @ 10:46 pm
He is only following the lead of Frank Cocconate.

www.frankcoconate.com

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Apr 25, 05 @ 6:07 am
Labor unrest started with Water Management memo dated 2002. They decided for the workers to ride the trucks and swipe in. That bright move cost Donald Tomsczak. What a move. Patrick McDonough and Frank Coconate started a scorched earth policy. Please enjoy new headline starting soon. In retospect it would have been smarter to pay the city worker and not mess with the city worker.

Comment by Anonymous Saturday, Apr 30, 05 @ 6:50 pm
Inspector General Alexander Vroustouris fired on June 22,2005
Mary Jo Falcon resigned June 23, 2005. Water Department employees fired due to corruption. Drug dealing in Chicago Water Department. Chicago Water Department Whistleblower Patrick McDonough fired April 1, 2005. Daley family gets tons of overtime. Frank Coconate exposes top heavy management at Chicago Water Department in Chicago Magazine. Daley Contract Scandals at O’hare Airport under Federal Investigation. Patrick “Deep Water” McDonough joins J. Terrence Brunner in Aviation Integrity Project. “Top Gun Lawyer” Frank Avila files Whistle Blower Lawsuit against City of Chicago. Please arrange to attend big upcoming meeting with the NEXT MAYOR OF THE CITY OF CHICAGO Jesse Jackson Jr. see details at www.frankcoconate.com Somebody tell that FOOL MAYOR DICK DALEY Pay the city worker a union wage with back pay, or the fun and games will not stop. Thanks to all city workers that want to stop the corruption waste and fraud at the City of Chicago.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Jun 23, 05 @ 12:29 pm