Residents of the nation’s largest corporate owner of manufactured home communities, Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS), say the company is engaging in abusive practices and general disinvestment in its properties.
Wednesday,
a group of more than 20 residents from across the country gathered
outside ELS’ annual shareholder meeting in Chicago and demanded to be heard by the company’s founder and chairman, Sam Zell.
While a few
demonstrators attended the meeting, several protesters rallied outside
and urged Zell and other ELS executives to stop “unfair rent increases”
that push residents, most of them retirees on fixed incomes, out of
their homes and into poverty.
The demonstration was part of an ongoing battle between ELS and residents who want better living and renting conditions.
“My
lot rent is more than half of my Social Security,” said Carla Burr, a
59 year-old resident of an ELS property in Chantilly, Virginia.
Burr
pays a monthly lot fee of $945 and makes an annual income of $42,000.
But, when she turns 65 she stands to lose an employer disability payment
that will cut her income almost in half.
“I don’t know if I’ll be
able to stay in my house,” she said, noting her lot fee has increased
$30 to $40 every year since she moved in, in 2006. “(ELS’) main goal is
to win money for their investors at any cost, and they don’t care who
they hurt.”
Prominent studies that rank states’ business climates often
contradict each other and should not be used to inform public policies,
according to a new “Grading Places” report published by the Washington, D.C.-based Good Jobs First.
“There’s
no such thing as a state business climate,” said Greg LeRoy, executive
director of Good Jobs First, on a conference call with reporters. “One
size can’t fit all. Things vary much too much among different kinds of
business facilities and among metro areas. There are no silver bullets.
There [are] no magic variables.”
It's time for the public to "tap into their anger" and rally against
tax loopholes that allow big U.S. corporations to dodge their fair share
of American taxes by stashing profits in offshore havens, said leaders
from Citizens for Tax Justice and Americans for Tax Fairness.
Congress
is currently entertaining a number of tax reform proposals that seek to
lower corporate taxes and provide incentives for sending jobs and
profit centers offshore, putting billions of tax dollars at stake over a
10-year period, Frank Clemente, campaign manager of Americans for Tax
Fairness, said on a conference call with reporters.
The
current debate on tax reform comes at a time when corporate profits are
at a 60-year high, yet "some of these companies are paying less in taxes
than you and I as individuals pay," Clemente said.
The AFL-CIO launched its updated and expanded Executive PayWatch
webpage Monday, which tracks CEO pay of some of the largest U.S.
companies and highlights the country’s growing wealth inequality.
The
site’s new data shows that American business executives continued to do very
well for themselves last year, while average workers struggled to make
ends meet, said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
“These CEOs
really should be ashamed for trying to balance the budget on the backs
of American working people, while at the same time demanding corporate
tax cuts for overseas profits,” Trumka said on a conference call with
reporters.
Executives at British Petroleum insist it is not the only company at fault for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster at the Macondo well, which caused an explosion that killed 11 men, sank a rig and spewed more than 4 million barrels of crude oil into the ocean.
The following was written by Anders Lindall, spokesman for AFSCME Council 31, in response to the op-ed posted on Progress Illinois yesterday from Gov. Pat Quinn's office.
Sadly, there they go again. Governor Pat Quinn and his staff
routinely twist reality, mislead the public and insult the men and women
who do the real work of state government in their communities every
day.
Endlessly repeating lies does not make them true. Yet the
1200 words of empty political talking points issued yesterday by a Quinn
spokeswoman are riddled with repeated falsehoods and glaring omissions.
SEIU Health Care Illinois and Indiana gave a $25,000 check yesterday to the Local Lodge 851 Machinists Union, which represents striking workers at Caterpillar's Joliet plant.
The following is written by Ron Kurowski of the South Suburban MoveOn Council.
It is not unusual for a company if it is in financial distress, faced
with outrageous demands or is unable to compete in a tough
economy to play hard-ball during contract negotiations with a union.
However none of these apply to the strike by Local 851 of the
International Association of Machinists at Caterpillar’s hydraulic
manufacturing plant in Channahon, IL. That is what makes this
work-stoppage so troubling.
Caterpillar is a very
profitable company. It reported second-quarter profits of $1.7 billion,
up 67 percent from a year earlier; a year in which Caterpillar earned
$4.7 billion in profits. Despite its profitability and the fact that
Caterpillar workers had their wages frozen during the previous six-year
contract, the company is demanding the wage freeze be extended for its
780 union members for six more years, that workers pay a greater share
of health care costs and that major changes be made to the seniority
provision in the contract.
Residents of the nation’s largest corporate owner of manufactured home communities, 
Prominent studies that rank states’ business climates often
contradict each other and should not be used to inform public policies,
according to a new 
It's time for the public to "tap into their anger" and rally against
tax loopholes that allow big U.S. corporations to dodge their fair share
of American taxes by stashing profits in offshore havens, said leaders
from 
The AFL-CIO launched its updated and expanded 
The following was written by Anders Lindall, spokesman for AFSCME Council 31, in response to the 
The following is written by Ron Kurowski of the South Suburban MoveOn Council. 