Thousands rally in Chicago’s Daley Plaza for union rights.
It was a perfect Saturday for a march.
Let me first point out that there was a large turnout from the Klonsky family. Local 1.
Teachers gathered in front of the Hyatt Regency Hotel where members of UNITE HERE have been in a negotiating dispute with the Pritzker family owned hotels for two years.
Illinois Federation President Dan Montgomery, Illinois Education Association President Ken Swanson and UNITE HERE Local 1 President Henry Tamarin greeted the crowd.
Swanson took note of the fact that the IEA RA in March had pulled out of the Hyatt Regency O’Hare. We are scheduled to stay at the downtown Hyatt during the July NEA convention. But Swanson said we would not be there if there was still a contract dispute.
We were also greeted by a Hyatt housekeeper. Hyatt workers who were on break looked on. Speaking in Spanish and holding a broom, the Hyatt housekeeper expressed solidarity with all the teachers at the rally. She pointed out that the same Pritzkers, big-time Democratic Party donors and friends of the Obamas (actually, she didn’t say that last part. I did.) who refuse to negotiate fair wages with Hyatt workers, are huge donors to the anti-teacher union organization, Stand For Children.
Our group of about a thousand CTU, IFT and IEA members headed down Wacker Drive and turned towards Daley Plaza. We joined what some estimated to be ten thousand union members and supporters. AFSCME members had gathered at the Illinois building and marched over to Daley Plaza in a separate feeder march.
A young rank-and-file teacher from Lincoln Park High School gave a dynamite speech to the crowd. So did a member of the fire fighters union in Madison.
“If there was one mistake that was made in the Civil Rights Movement,” he said. “Maybe it was that we got complacent.”
He said, “We shouldn’t call this a ‘movement.’ A movement has an end. We have to see fighting for our rights as an ongoing way of life. Some may have thought it was right to move the fight from the streets to the courts. But it’s clear now that we have to go back to the streets”
NICE, and good job of associating the Pritzkers with the Obamas. No props for Obama on his education stance. We ARE one, and we voted for Obama.
Dear Mr. President,
We meet here today because one of our nation’s greatest resources is facing extinction. That resource is the American Worker and their right to Collective Bargaining.
One of your alum from Harvard once said, “A mind stretched to a new dimension, will never return to its original shape”. That statement is truer now than when Oliver Wendell Holmes said it nearly a century ago. And you Sir are one of the modern examples. Your Presidency not only stretched one mind, it stretched the mind of a nation and in turn, a world.
Therefore, I would like to take you up on a campaign promise. It was when you mentioned that you would walk arm-in-arm with us to campaign for American Workers rights. Thus far and with all due respect, your position and statements coming from the White House has been somewhat tepid.
American Workers from across the country now find themselves fighting for survival and they need your help. These same American Workers that not only built the White House where you live, but have also built millions of other homes, schools and places of worship across our country. They have also built roads and the cars that drive on them. They teach your children and tens of millions of others as well. These same Workers protect our cities, extinguish our fires, and respond to our 9-1-1 emergencies.
In understanding the massive security measures needed for a President to walk down Main Street U.S.A., perhaps there is an alternative. Send a statement of support. This would renew the American Worker’s spirit and encourage them to continue their fight. And if Oliver Wendell Holmes had it correct, it could also have the possibility of stretching the minds of those opposing Collective Bargaining.
Sincerely,
Glen Moss
P.S. If you would rather walk arm-in-arm, let me know and I will buy the shoes.
I joined the Hyatt workers as a fellow union member. One of the chants went ” the Hyatt is cheap! Cheap, and MEAN.” I understood their meaning when Hyatt security turned on two generators and compressors and had several workers start shooting compressed air at the sidewalks on the corner patio near where we were peacefully protesting. I found it to be a shockingly aggressive act towards everyone that had assembled to support workers rights.
Link to the video by clicking on my name.