Posts tagged Mayor
‘Fight for $15’? How quaint. Powerful Chicago union now wants $25 per hour minimum wage – Wirepoints
December 1, 2022 // Order employers to pay at least $25 per hour. That’s the new position of Chicago’s powerful chapter of SEIU, the Service Employees International Union, as reported by Crain’s and ABC Chicago. It would be a 60% increase in Chicago’s current wage of $15.40 per hour. SEIU wants candidates for Chicago mayor, alderman and other city offices to take a position on that increase, and “the group appears quite serious about that,” according to Crain’s. So far, no candidate has said no to the increase, SEIU told Crain’s. The union’s full candidate questionnaire is here. It seems like the ink on Fight for 15 posters has barely dried. That movement to push wages up to $15 per hour might appear to be largely successful on the surface. The Fight for $15’s “success is inspirational” to labor activists, as The Guardian reported last week.
Union President Flip-Flops as Political Winds Change
March 10, 2022 // Unions are deeply involved in politics and policymaking. At the highest levels, they behave like any other special interest group, funneling money from their members into political campaigns and lobbying government agencies. Even the CDC, which has a duty to advise the public based on science, instead took input from powerful teachers unions in crafting masking guidelines in 2021. Union officials have no compunction about admitting that they interfere in public health policy—Weingarten even claimed that she asked the CDC to change their guidelines this time around.