Progress Illinois

Four months before their existing contracts were set to expire, more than 600 Hilton Hotel workers represented by Unite Here Local 1 and Local 450 have reached a five-year contract settlement with the hotel chain.

Workers’ from the Drake, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago Hilton, and Hilton O’Hare voted Saturday to ratify the agreement with the Virginia-based hotel chain, well before the August 31 contract expiration date. 

“This is really significant in that this has all been done before the expiration of the current contract,” said Carly Karmel, spokesperson for Unite Here. 

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Graduate workers at the University of Illinois at Chicago are voting on whether or not to authorize a strike after negotiations with university officials over a living wage fell short of their demands Wednesday night, according to members of the Graduate Employees Organization.

The voting process to authorize a possible strike began Thursday and will continue through Monday, which is the end of the union's next bargaining session with UIC's administration.

“I don’t think most of our members want to strike," said Neri Sandoval, a graduate assistant in UIC's Department of African-American Studies. "I think it’s something that, I believe, is an outcome of a series of events the university has led to."

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Illinois received an “A-“ when it comes to online government spending transparency, according to the Illinois Public Interest Research Group’s annual “Following the Money” report.

The transparency mark is better than the “B-“ the state received in the group’s report last year.

But despite the positive rating, Hailey Golds, an advocate with Illinois PIRG, said Illinois' could do more to be transparent.

“The state of Illinois should build upon this year’s progress and further improve the breadth and ease-of-access of online government spending information,” Golds said. “Given our state budget problems, Illinoisans need to be able to follow the money.” 

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Tonya Yarbrough, a security officer at the Chicago Stock Exchange at 440 South LaSalle St., wakes up at 5 a.m. every day to commute on the Green Line from Englewood to be at work by 7 a.m. in downtown Chicago. She says she feels safer at work than she does at home.

“If I were paid a little bit more maybe I’d be able to make a better life for myself and my family,” she said. “Maybe I could move to a better neighborhood.”

Yarbrough, 42, a born-and-raised Chicagoan and security officer of nine years, makes $12.65 an hour.

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