June 22, 2010 at 1:34 p.m.
Filed under:
Labor,
Policy,
Politics,
Retail,
Unions
By Clout Street
Mayor Richard Daley Tuesday applauded Wal-Mart’s offer to pay workers at Chicago stores at least $8.75 an hour, saying the retailer is showing it is willing to go beyond what it pays elsewhere in order to bring much-needed jobs and healthy food options into the city.
The pro-Wal-Mart stance by Daley comes ahead of Thursday’s key City Council Zoning Committee vote on whether to allow the giant retailer to open a second store within city limits following years of stalled expansion efforts. The $8.75 an hour figure is 50 cents more than minimum wage but 50 cents less than labor unions are seeking.
June 14, 2010 at 10:35 a.m.
Filed under:
Labor,
Manufacturing,
Unions
Associated Press | Just days after a monthlong walkout ended at its California C-17 plant, Boeing Co. is facing another possible strike.
The plane maker’s machinists union in St. Louis has voted to reject a company offer that would have replaced a contract that expires Sunday. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said on its website Sunday that members voted 1548-532 to reject the offer, and voted 1619-459 to strike.
Get the full story: Boeing machinists in St. Louis vote down contract.
June 1, 2010 at 3:19 p.m.
Filed under:
Criminal charges,
Labor,
Unions
William Hogan Jr. in a 1996 file photo. (Nancy Stone/Tribune)
By Ameet Sachdev |
William Hogan Jr., once Chicago’s most powerful Teamster, has reached a
settlement with federal prosecutors in New York to resolve criminal
contempt charges against him.
In 2007, Hogan was charged with contempt for, effectively, refusing to
stop associating with members of the union, from which he was expelled in 2002.
The charge was later amended to include an alleged violation arising
from Hogan’s 2007 employment by a business employing Teamster members.
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May 26, 2010 at 11:59 a.m.
Filed under:
Conventions,
Policy,
Politics,
Unions
By Kathy Bergen
and Ray Long
| House Speaker Michael Madigan proposed modest revisions to the McCormick
Place overhaul legislation this morning, reflecting some issues that
had been raised by Gov. Pat Quinn.
But it’s still possible the governor may attempt to use his amendatory
veto power later today to push for more dramatic changes, sources said.
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By Michael Oneal
| Tribune Co. plans to pay 35 of its top executives $14.9 million in additional 2009 bonuses, a court filing revealed late Monday, despite pointed opposition to the proposal from several key constituents in its 17-month-old Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.
The company describes the bonuses, devised as two plans, as rewards for steering the company through bankruptcy court while generating total operating cash flow of $494 million in 2009.
The payments would supplement $42.1 million in management incentive bonuses the court allowed Tribune Co. to pay in February to approximately 670 managers, including most of the executives included in the most senior group.
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May 19, 2010 at 4:53 p.m.
Filed under:
Conventions,
Policy,
Politics,
Unions
By John Byrne
and Kathy Bergen | Mayor Richard Daley says his office will be meeting with Gov. Pat Quinn to determine why the governor is balking at signing the McCormick Place overhaul legislation.
“We’ll be talking to him very shortly,” Daley told reporters today.
When asked about the consequences for the city if the bill is not signed, Daley said, “We have to make sure we have the best convention atmosphere because people depend off of it — both local, county and state governments basically get a huge amount of money off it. That’s realistic. A lot of sales tax coming in.”
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May 18, 2010 at 6:26 p.m.
Filed under:
Conventions,
Unions
By Kathy Bergen | Gov. Pat Quinn, who has been deliberating on whether to sign McCormick Place overhaul legislation, will meet with some of Chicago’s top trade show organizers Thursday afternoon, less than 48 hours before the start of the restaurant industry’s high-profile show, sources said Tuesday.
Whether Quinn will inform them that he intends to sign the legislation, which show managers are pushing for, or will just solicit their views was unclear. Quinn’s office declined to comment.
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Union members sit in the audience listening as union reps and contractors testify in front of the Joint Committee on the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority in early April of 2010. (Nancy Stone/ Chicago Tribune)
By Kathy Bergen | At a revamped McCormick Place, trade shows and their exhibitors could be
guaranteed a basic set of rights and show-floor work rules aimed at
cutting their costs, and the contractors and union workers who want the
right to work the shows would have to accept those terms.
At least that’s the legal concept behind the recommendations expected to
be issued this week or next by the state legislative committee studying
how to make Chicago’s convention business more competitive with
lower-cost rivals, according to a source close to the deliberations.
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April 22, 2010 at 5:48 p.m.
Filed under:
Airlines,
Labor,
M&A,
Unions
A United Airlines check-in area and a Continental Airlines kiosk at O’Hare International Airport. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
By Julie Johnsson | United Airlines’ merger talks with Continental Airlines are progressing
rapidly, and many of the key issues involved with melding the carriers have been resolved, said a person close to the talks.
Telephone calls are flying between carriers’ management teams and their directors, and a deal could be completed as soon as next week.
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April 13, 2010 at 1:05 p.m.
Filed under:
Airlines,
Jobs/employment,
Labor,
Layoffs,
M&A,
Unions
United Airlines pilots and flight attendants picketing outside a board of directors meeting in 2009. (Alex Garcia/Chicago Tribune)
From Reuters | Airline industry analysts say that dissatisfied pilots, flight attendants and ground workers are a huge obstacle to the success of a merger between UAL Corp’s United Airlines and U.S. Airways. “If anyone thinks that sitting these groups down together and coming up with a single contract is going to be easy, they’re not reading the tea leaves,” Pat Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, told Reuters. “I’m not even talking about what’s happening with the pilot groups — that’s another train wreck waiting to happen.”
Get the full story: reuters.com.
April 1, 2010 at 2:26 p.m.
Filed under:
Conventions,
Unions
Illinois Senate President John J. Cullerton speaking about McCormick Place on Thursday. (José M. Osorio/ Chicago Tribune)
By Kathy Bergen | One of the state’s most powerful legislative leaders on Thursday raised
the possibility of a state subsidy for McCormick Place operations, after
several representatives of key Chicago trade shows made it clear they
needed exhibitor costs slashed or they would consider moving elsewhere.
“Orlando and Las Vegas both provide subsidies for their operations,”
said Ill. Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, who chaired the
first legislative hearing on how to make McCormick Place more
competitive with rivals. Those cities funnel hotel taxes to pay for
operations, and Cullerton said Illinois could consider doing the same with its existing hotel tax revenues.
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March 31, 2010 at 3:57 p.m.
Filed under:
Conventions,
Government,
Unions
A view of McCormick Place during the Chicago Auto Show. (Phil Velasquez/ Chicago Tribune)
By Kathy Bergen | Trade
show customers’ voices will be among the first heard by a legislative panel
opening hearings on McCormick Place operations Thursday morning.
The high-profile restaurant and housewares shows will provide testimony
as will representatives of major print and metal-forming shows and a
surgeons’ convention. Individual exhibitors also will speak at the 10 a.m. hearing at the Thompson Center.
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March 29, 2010 at 10:44 a.m.
Filed under:
Autos,
Health care,
Retirement,
Unions
Associated Press | The United Auto Workers union is hoping to raise at least $1.3 billion for its retiree health care trust fund by selling all of its 362 million warrants for Ford Motor Co. stock.
The trust will auction the warrants, which were issued in December 2009 as part of contract talks with the union, starting at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Ford said Monday in a statement. The automaker and union agreed to set up the trust to help Ford remove retiree health care costs from its books while it was in financial trouble in 2007.
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March 17, 2010 at 3:14 p.m.
Filed under:
Airlines,
Labor,
Outsourcing,
Unions
United Airline pilots picket on the sidewalk outside of the United Airline headquarters at 77 W. Wacker Drive in Chicago. (José M. Osorio/ Chicago Tribune)
By Julie Johnsson |
United Airlines pilots and flight attendants celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by picketing the airline’s Chicago headquarters to protest a controversial joint venture with Ireland’s Aer Lingus.
United flight crews are particularly unhappy with new service between Washington Dulles International Airport and Madrid that United and Aer Lingus plan to launch later this month.
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March 17, 2010 at 1:42 p.m.
Filed under:
Conventions,
Labor,
Unions
By Kathy Bergen | Chicago
trade show organizers are meeting directly with McCormick Place labor
leaders this afternoon in a private meeting at the McCormick Place
Hyatt.
The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, the government agency that owns and operates McCormick Place and Navy Pier, initially said it had no information about the meeting. Later in the day, a spokeswoman said Juan Ochoa, the agency’s chief executive, was in fact aware of the session, as were other managers. The Chicago Convention and Tourism
Bureau, which books business into the convention hall, also said it had
no information.
Mary Pat Heftman, point person for the National Restaurant Association’s
annual show here, was asked about who organized the meeting as she
approached the meeting room.
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