Unions have been crucial in helping women get rights, better pay and
benefits in the workplace, panelists at a forum in Waukegan stressed
Wednesday evening.
With a backdrop of teacher strikes in Chicago
and Lake Forest, this forum focused not on endorsing candidates for
office, but on dispelling "ignorance" too often associated with unions,
according to an organizer with the pro-union group Industrial Workers of
the World.
“We are in the fight for our life,” said Helen
Ramirez-Odell, a panelist at the forum who worked nearly 44 years as a
Chicago Public Schools nurse and is now a CTU district supervisor. “It’s
taken a lot to get teachers to this point.”
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Dozens of custodial workers from O’Hare International Airport filled
the fifth floor of City Hall Friday in protest of a recent city contract. The Emanuel administration recently awarded a new five-year janitorial contract with a company that may replace more than 300 union jobs at the airport with non-union,
lower-paying positions by next month.
With contract negotiations still at an impasse, Chicago public school
teachers hit the picket lines for a second day as local and national
labor union leaders joined in a show of support.