Explore our content

All types | All dates | All authors
strike

Pages

Quick Hit
by Aaron Cynic
4:00pm
Tue Sep 30, 2014

Nuns On The Bus Rally With Quinn To Promote Voter Participation

A group of traveling Catholic nuns passed through Chicago's Union Park in West Town last week to pass along a key message — get out and vote.

Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK, a national Catholic social justice lobby, led the the “We the People, We the Voters” tour, which is traveling to 36 cities as part of its voter registration effort. The nuns, who have done similar bus tours in 2012 and 2013, say voting is the best way Americans can create social change and counter big money in politics.

“The way we make our voice heard, the way we make sure good policy for the 100 percent (is) made is by voting,” Campbell said. “We the people need to stand up, vote and be engaged.”

PI Original
by Ellyn Fortino
4:15pm
Thu Sep 4, 2014

Chicagoland Fast Food Workers Strike For Higher Wages; 31 Arrests Made (VIDEO)

Labor

Chicago fast food workers escalated their fight on Thursday for a $15 hourly wage and union rights by participating in acts of civil disobedience during a nationwide day of strikes. Progress Illinois was there for today's protests.

Quick Hit
by
5:34pm
Mon Sep 1, 2014

OP-ED: What FDR Actually Said And What Bruce Rauner Doesn't Get This Labor Day

The following is by Izabela Miltko, deputy press secretary of the Quinn for Illinois campaign.

Republican billionaire Bruce Rauner has never met a union he's ever liked, and his own words make that amply clear. He's called them "tumors." He called them "immoral." He even threatened to shut down the government to get his way.

Now, it's not bad enough that Rauner demonizes and consistently attacks unions that represent working men and women, but he really thought he was getting a dig in on that last characterization. That's because Rauner was ascribing his hatred for labor to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Rauner was being quoted by the State Journal-Register when he claimed that FDR was speaking about public-sector unions and said that, "government unions are wrong...they shouldn't exist, they're immoral."

Rauner's hero up in Wisconsin, Scott Walker, has similarly tried to appropriate the words of President Roosevelt and create the impression that these words and sentiments are true.

They're not. In fact, they’re not even close. And the fact that Rauner is trying to get away with this lie-at the same time advocating against workers, unions and the minimum wage-is an insult to us all.

Quick Hit
by Ellyn Fortino
12:33pm
Thu Jul 31, 2014

Chicago Fast Food Workers Celebrate NLRB's McDonald's Ruling (VIDEO)

Chanting "Who's the boss? McDonald's!," a group of fast food workers rallied in Chicago on Thursday in response to this week's decision by the National Labor Relations Board's top lawyer, who found that McDonald's could be held liable as an employer in unfair labor practice complaints filed against their franchisees.

The decision issued Tuesday by the NLRB general counsel came in response to unfair labor practice charges brought against McDonald’s and its franchised restaurants in a number of cities, including Chicago, since November of 2012, when fast food workers in New York participated in the first strike against the fast food industry. Among other allegations, the complainants say McDonald's retaliated against workers for organizing.

Though the ruling is preliminary, McDonald's employee Nancy Salgado, who works in the city's Logan Square neighborhood, said fast food workers — who are fighting for $15 an hour and a union — are ecstatic about the decision. 

"All along, we know that corporate is the one in charge of McDonald's [franchised stores], in charge of the workers," Salgado said at Thursday's rally, held outside of the Rock N Roll McDonald's at 600 N. Clark St. "They're always trying to hide from us and say, 'We have nothing to do with (labor practices at the franchises) ... The owner deals with you."

Pages