Progress Illinois

As part of their effort to raise awareness about the Employee Free Choice Act, the Service Employees International Union (whose Illinois council sponsors this website) is organizing events at McDonald's locations around the country tomorrow at noon.  On the SEIU blog, Michael Whitney writes:

We want to speak directly with McDonald's employees about what it's like to work for a CEO who is paid 770 times what his workers earn, leaving working families with barely enough to afford the "Dollar Menu." [...]

The Employee Free Choice Act gives workers the free choice to join unions so they can bargain for better wages, benefits, and retirement security. But it's apparent that McDonald's doesn't want its employees to see any of that.

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The SEIU Illinois State Council (which sponsors this website) issued the following press release last night:

Representatives of Illinois SEIU have been in communication with the United States Attorney’s Office in Chicago, and we have no reason to believe that SEIU or any SEIU official was involved in any misconduct relating to the charges against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. The SEIU and Tom Balanoff, Illinois SEIU State Council President, are fully cooperating with the federal investigation. Out of respect for the legal process, we are not sharing any further information.

As I noted on Tuesday, there is nothing in the complaint against Rod Blagojevich that suggests the unnamed "SEIU official" did anything other than hear the governor's scheme to secure a high-paying position at a non-profit in return for the Senate seat selection.

Beyond the two figures arrested today -- Gov. Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris -- there are numerous other individuals mentioned by code names in the indictment.  There is rampant speculation about who is who and some of the identities are more obvious than others.  A better picture will emerge in the coming days, no doubt.

There are also two entities -- the Chicago Tribune and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) -- that, according to the U.S. attorney's complaint, came up in the discussions between Blagojevich and his advisors.  In the case of the former, the governor allegedly tried to get Tribune Co. executives to fire editorial board members in return for his aiding the sale of Wrigley Field.  In the case of the latter, Blagojevich allegedly sought to enlist SEIU to help him ultimately secure a high-paying job in exchange for picking Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett to fill Illinois' vacant U.S Senate seat. 

While both entities were apparently approached by Blagojevich aides about his schemes, there's no evidence in the complaint that either responded actively or committed any wrongdoing. 

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The Service Employees International Union is sinking some serious resources into comprehensive get-out-the-vote efforts in Northwest Indiana, where over 5,000 of the union's members reside.

The SEIU Illinois State Council (which sponsors this website) is targeting the 325 highest Democratic performing precincts in Lake County, most of which are located in Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago.  Over the last two months, they've registered nearly 10,000 new voters in these areas.

Now that the voter registration period has ended, SEIU is shifting focus to a list of 130,000 voters targeted for contact in the region. The union will have approximately 100 full time staff and members working on this effort by the end of this week.  They are knocking on approximately 6,000 doors a day and, with 40 phone lines dedicated to the effort, estimate they'll complete about 2,000 daily calls.

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Flaunting Chicago's purported "post-partisanship" on the national stage would likely subject Barack Obama to some ridicule, but that doesn't mean other Chicago-based political programs aren't worth emulating on the national stage. Check out this Chicago Reader interview with Tom Balanoff, president of the SEIU Illinois State Council (which sponsors this site). Balanoff discusses the union's political success in the city's 2007 aldermanic elections (including the establishment of the Independent Caucus) and their plans to ensure Democratic accountability in 2008 and beyond. It's an approach with considerable merit:

MICK DUMKE: So you essentially want to take the 2007 Chicago model and apply it to Congress?

BALANOFF: We absolutely do. The alderman’s races were really an effort on SEIU and labor’s part to say "How do we establish an independent political base?" I think a lot of good things have already started happening in terms of creating an independent bloc there in the City Council, and I think a lot of good things came out of that for labor.

But it is really a question of specific issues—we want to establish some political power to get real results for working families on things like health care, the war, and the labor movement. [...]

I think there’s an understanding starting to evolve with labor that we need to build political power for ourselves and not for candidates, and the way we do that is to make sure we’re working on particular issues. The only permanent friends we have are those politicians who stick with our issues.

An important detail in SEIU's plan to spend $75 million this election cycle is the union's emphasis on Democratic accountability. The New York Times' Steven Greenhouse has the details:

[SEIU Secretary-Treasurere Anna] Burger said the $10 million accountability fund might be used to try to defeat 5 or 10 other candidates who don’t make good on their promises to support workers on various issues.

She said the money might also be used to run ads to criticize Democrats who her union believes take the wrong positions. For instance, she said her union ran ads criticizing Representative Dan Boren of Oklahoma when he opposed a bill to spend more money for health coverage for children.

Expanding programs that confront conservative Democrats is a great step for both labor and progressive activists in general. Mark Pera's primary campaign in Illinois' 3rd Congressional District this year is a prime example. To beat back the grassroots challenger, incumbent Dan Lipinski was forced to reverse his original support for an Iraq blank check bill, a vote he wouldn't have cast had Pera not been campaigning to his left. As I wrote in my In These Times profile of the Pera campaign, these primary challenges are valuable regardless of the race's outcome:

Despite the concerns about Republican takeovers, primary-race challenges could improve party discipline. Incumbents would benefit from local races that force them to regularly reconnect with constituents. In the long run, ousting incumbents who are out-of-touch could save cash and time for activists who now spend limited resources lobbying conservative Democrats. More energy could be devoted to open races. Most importantly, internal challenges can give voice to voters and activists who are shunted aside when no mechanism for accountability exists.

Full disclosure: the SEIU Illinois Council sponsors this website.

(h/t Open Left)

SEIU (whose Illinois Council sponsors this site) has a sharp, new pro-Obama ad up in Indiana. The spot is running statewide and you can check it out here.