Just one week after President Obama signed into law a measure that adds sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes
under hate crime statutes, gay rights advocates were back on Capitol
Hill yesterday pushing for additional civil protections. Among them was
Illinois' own Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who testified in favor of
the recently reintroduced Employment Non-Discrimination Act (S. 1584), which would finally bar most workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
To the credit of state lawmakers, Illinois' own Human Rights Act was
amended back in 2006 to include both sexual orientation and gender
identity as protected classes under anti-discrimination laws. The fact
that we are one of only 12 states to put such protections on the books
underscores the need for a federal response, Madigan told
the Senate's Education, Labor and Pension Committee. "Through
the enactment of a statewide statute prohibiting discrimination based
on sexual orientation or gender identity, Illinois has promoted
tolerance, fundamental equality and the common humanity of all
individuals in our state," Madigan said. "The benefits of such a
message to the citizens of our state cannot be underestimated." Watch
an excerpt from her testimony below:
Could this be the week that the Senate finally passes an
unemployment benefits extension? Senate Majority Harry Reid (D-NV)
thinks so.
At about 4 p.m. CST today, the Senate will take its second cloture vote on H.R. 3548,
which would provide an extra 14 weeks of unemployment assistance (and
20 weeks for those in states with unemployment rates above 8.5 percent)
to workers who have already exhausted their benefits. Should 60
senators approve the final language, Democrats will have to wait an
additional 30 hours before a final vote can be called. That means the
upper chamber could approve a final version late Tuesday night or early
Wednesday morning. Reid expects them to do so:
After weeks of delays because of a fight with Republicans over
amendments, Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and majority
leader, said he expects the Senate this week to approve an extra 14
weeks of unemployment aid for those who have exhausted their benefits.
People out of work in states where the unemployment rate is more than
8.5 percent would get up to 20 weeks.
“We have a million people – one million people – who are eligible for this,” Mr. Reid said.
Two amendments will also be considered, including an extension of the $8,000 tax credit
for first-time homebuyers that is scheduled to expire at the end of the
month. We'll be updating this post later in the day with the roll call,
as well as any other updates from the Senate floor.
UPDATE (4:43 PM): The Senate approved a cloture vote by an 85-2 margin tonight. Our post on that roll call is here.
Chicago International Charter Schools (CICS) teachers made history
last summer by becoming the first charter school employees to unionize
in Chicago. Today, they made it official and ratified their first
contract. Teachers at three of CICS' Civitas campuses -- Ralph Ellison,
Northtown Academy, and Wrightwood -- have struck a three-year deal.
Among the contract highlights
are a commitment to cap classroom sizes at 29 and to formalize
community and teacher input. Also, the 140 Civitas teachers will see
their wages increase over the next three years, their evaluations will
be standardized, and staff will have due process in disciplinary or
dismissal cases. (Catalyst has a more detailed run-down here.)
When the General Assembly lifted the state's charter cap
last June, they cleared the way to doubling the number of outsourced
public schools. While Civitas' landmark contract is limited to only
three of the dozens of charter schools in Chicago, the expectations for
transparency and public input in these institutions -- which rely
almost exclusively on tax dollars -- are certain to set a new tone. As
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers,
sees it, the agreement is a key step in keeping innovation, not cost
cutting, as the driver of the privatization model.
Almost two days after the H.R. 3548 survived its first cloture vote,
there has been no major movement on the bill that would extend
unemployment insurance for Americans who have exhausted their benefits.
Why? Republicans keep throwing up new procedural barriers.
After reaching a bipartisan agreement to include an amendment extending the first-time homebuyer's tax credit, Senate Republicans agreed today to drop their efforts
to weigh down the legislation with controversial amendments regarding ACORN
and the E-Verify program. In exchange, they've turned to a new
form of obstruction: demanding a vote on two new controversial
amendments. The first would speed up the expiration date for the
Troubled Asset Relief Program (a non-starter for Democrats who point
out that a sunset date for the bank bailouts is already written into
law). The second is yet another attempt to change to the way the extension
is funded, by using "unspent" stimulus money, rather than the federal
unemployment surtax, which amounts to 0.2 percent tax on the initial
$7,000 of employees' wages.
As we've discussed before,
funding an extension through the surtax is a sound strategy. After all,
unemployment benefits have been extended so frequently over the past 30
years, many businesses have already budgeted for it. And it's not
exactly a hefty expense, costing employers, on average, an extra $14
per employee annually. The GOP opposition is nothing more than petty politics.
Until those details can be ironed out, the legislation will stay
lodged in the upper chamber. And every day that it does, another 350 Illinois families will exhaust their benefits.
The Congress Hotel employees have been striking for over six years.
In the coming days, a huge batch of their fellow Chicago hotel workers
may join them.
At 8 p.m. last night, employees at five area hotels run by the Starwood Chain -- the Westin
Michigan Avenue, the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers, the W
Lakeshore, the W, and the Tremont Hotel -- voted by an overwhelming
majority to authorize a strike.
The workers, represented by UNITE-HERE Local 1, are not walking out on
the job just yet. But the vote gives union negotiators the green light
to call a work stoppage or a boycott if contract negotiations don't
progress, a major escalation in a campaign that's already featured a dramatic civil disobedience.
It's been eight weeks since UNITE-HERE's three-year contract covering workers at 30 downtown hotels expired and the two sides are still not close to reaching a compromise. Like their comrades at Hyatt -- one of the city's other big chains -- Starwood is claiming poverty,
citing the recession as the reason they can't boost pay or benefits for
its employees. Furthermore, in an attempt to cut costs, they are
requesting that employees work 120 hours a month in order to qualify
for health insurance, a move union officials say would disqualify
almost half of their workers from coverage.
There's no doubt that the recession depressed tourism last year. But hotels seem to be on relatively sturdy financial ground;
Yesterday marked a solemn milestone for the service workers at the
Congress Hotel in downtown Chicago. For six years, four months, and 11
days, UNITE-HERE Local 1 members have walked their picket line in hopes of securing fair wages and benefits,
marking the longest hotel strike in the nation's history. But apart
from the Congress dispute, the specter of more work stoppages is
hanging over the union and the 6,000 Chicago workers it represents
across the city.
The three-year contract covering UNITE-HERE Local 1 workers at 30 downtown hotels expired on August 31. In the seven weeks since, despite intense pressure from the labor community and its advocates, union negotiators told the Tribunethat
little progress has been made. "Things have gotten really bad," said
Annemarie Strassel, spokesperson for Local 1. "I think that employers
see the bad economy as an opportunity to ram through proposals."
Yesterday afternoon, members of Local 1 marched up and down Michigan
Avenue, stopping at the Congress, the Hilton, the Blackstone (where the
local and the roughly 200 workers it represents have been negotiating a contract for months) to demand that the city's workers are treated fairly.
The Showdown in Chicago continues ... Via SEIU and National People's Action, here's some great video of a surprise rally that followed the Goldman Sachs protest we highlighted earlier. Many of those same demonstrators headed over to Wells Fargo's office building and gathered in the lobby, chanting: "Bailouts? No thanks! Bust up big banks!." When security finally escorted them from the premises, the crowd yelled in unison, "We'll be back! We'll be back!" Watch it:
During the subprime mortgage boom that led to the financial crisis, Wells Fargo was easily one of the worst actors. In recent months, several lawsuits filed across the country (including here in Illinois) have alleged that the bank targeted minority homeowners for high-interest mortgages while offering cheaper deals to white customers. Moreover, local unions have spent much of this year fighting Wells Fargo's efforts to cut off credit to companies like Hartmarx and Quad City Die Casting. In fact, the United Electrical Workers (who represent the Quad City employees) were on hand in Chicago today and can be seen briefly in the video above.
In other Showdown news, be sure to read the Nation's Esther Kaplan on the first evening of action.
This morning marked the second day of the Showdown in Chicago. It started with a speech by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) chair Sheila Bair, who strongly expressed her support for the formation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (she is also scheduled to address the American Bankers Association conference today). "I don't know how anyone can say we've done a good job protecting consumers in financial services," Bair said. "So we need this new agency." Watch some clips from her appearance, in which she also declared, "No more bailouts!":
Later in the morning, hundreds of protestors headed over to 71 S. Wacker, the Chicago headquarters of Goldman Sachs -- by far the most powerful bank in the country. Below is some video from that racuous action:
Also, here's the fiery conclusion of Rev. Tony Pierce's speech at yesterday's event (Pierce is the vice president of the Central Illinois Organizing Project):
Yesterday marked the kick-off of the Showdown in Chicago, three days of actions countering the American Bankers Association's annual conference here in the Windy City. Nearly a thousand activists and mobilized taxpayers from across the state and country arrived in buses and streamed into the downtown Hyatt where a string of speakers fired up the crowd. One of them was Larry Ginter of the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, who asked the crowd to show how they've been affected by the banking industry's destructive policies. Watch it:
Following Ginter was Tom Balanoff, president of the SEIU Illinois State Council (which sponsors this website):
Later, Sen. Dick Durbin took the podium, where he told the story of Chicagoan Nettie McGee:
On October 25, members of the American Bankers Association (ABA) descended on the Sheraton in downtown Chicago for an annual conference featuring appearances by conservative celebrities Newt Gingrich and George Will. But local progressives didn't let the bankers party in peace. During the three-day conference, the SEIU Illinois State Council (which sponsors this website), Action Now, National People's Action (NPA), and dozens of other activist organizations held a string of events aimed at harnessing the growing public discontent with the banking industry. Taxpayers who are fed-up with the endless bailouts and exorbitant bonuses -- not to mention the ongoing obstruction of commons sense financial regulations -- travelled from all across the state and the country to take part. Meet a few of the participants in the video below:
Here is a compendium of Progress Illinois' three day's worth of coverage:
DAY ONE: OCTOBER 25, 2009
On Sunday afternoon, nearly a thousand activists and mobilized taxpayers from across the state and country arrived in Chicago. They streamed off buses and into the downtown Hyatt where a string of speakers fired up the crowd. One of them was Larry Ginter of the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, who asked the audience to show how they've been affected by the banking industry's destructive policies. Watch it (courtesy of SEIU and NPA):
Following Ginter was Tom Balanoff, president of the SEIU Illinois State Council (which sponsors this website):
Later, Sen. Dick Durbin took the podium, where he told the story of Chicagoan Nettie McGee:
Durbin also urged the bankers assembled at the ABA conference to quit obstructing the formation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA):
Illinois' senior senator went on to tell the crowd, "It's time for the showdown":
Later in the evening, hundreds of protesters headed out of the Hyatt and across the Chicago River to crash the ABA members' "Roaring Twenties"-themed cocktail party. Here's some footage (courtesy of SEIU and NPA):
Fox Chicago also had a great report on the first day of actions, highlighting the experience of Chicagoan Bonita Williamson:
Further, here's the fiery conclusion of Rev. Tony Pierce's speech at yesterday's event (Pierce is the vice president of the Central Illinois Organizing Project):
The Nation's Esther Kaplan also provided a great wrap-up of the first day of events:
Yep, you heard right, hundreds of people were chanting for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, a new oversight body Barack Obama has proposed that could ban such disastrous practices as no-doc mortgages, payday loans, and no-warning overdraft fees on checking accounts. (A bill to create the agency made it through the House Financial Services Committee last week). Wonky, sure, but vital, too, and it was both hilarious and inspiring to see a roomful of Iowa farmers and Kansas retirees and preachers and teachers and utility workers jumping to their feet at the sound of those magic letters. One woman from Wichita, Arnetta Jefferson, told me she herself was facing the loss of her home and described "house after house after house empty" in her community, all from foreclosures. "I'm tired of it," she said. CFPA! CFPA! CFPA!
DAY TWO: OCTOBER 26, 2009
Monday began with a speech by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) chair Sheila Bair, who strongly expressed her support for the formation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (she was also scheduled to address the American Bankers Association conference today). "I don't know how anyone can say we've done a good job protecting consumers in financial services," Bair said to the assembled "showdowners." "So we need this new agency." Watch some clips from her appearance (courtesy of SEIU and NPA):
Later in the morning, hundreds of protestors headed over to 71 S. Wacker, the Chicago headquarters of Goldman Sachs -- by far the most powerful bank in the country. Below is some video from that racuous action:
Furthermore, WBEZ's Eight Forty-Eight devoted two segments of this morning's program to the Showdown in Chicago event. First, they talked toShelly Ruzicka, director of operations for ARISE Chicago, one of the local organizations participating in the event. Then host Robert Steele discussed the issue of banking reform with Tribune business columnist David Greising and Phil Ashton, assistant professor at the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Following the Goldman Sachs action, many of those same demonstrators headed over to Wells Fargo's office building and rallied in the lobby, chanting: "Bailouts? No thanks! Bust up big banks!." When security finally escorted them from the premises, the crowd yelled in unison, "We'll be back! We'll be back!" Watch it (courtesy of SEIU and NPA):
During the subprime mortgage boom that led to the financial crisis, Wells Fargo was easily one of the worst actors. In recent months, several lawsuits filed across the country (including here in Illinois) have alleged that the bank targeted minority homeowners for high-interest mortgages while offering cheaper deals to white customers. Moreover, local unions have spent much of this year fighting Wells Fargo's efforts to cut off credit to companies like Hartmarx and Quad City Die Casting. In fact, the United Electrical Workers (who represent the Quad City employees) were on hand in Chicago today and can be seen briefly in the video above.
Later in the day, the protestors moved back to the Sheraton, where the ABA conference is taking place. There we caught up with Trenda Kennedy. The Nation's Esther Kaplan described the Springfield resident's situation in her Day 2 recap:
Take Trenda Kennedy, of Springfield, Illinois, and her partner, Brandy Hensley. Between them, they have six kids, and their home, Kennedy said, "has been a haven for teenage boys." But last year Kennedy lost her job as an office worker; soon, Hensley, a fire fighter for ten years, was laid off too. Suddenly, they desperately needed a mortgage modification to save their home. They saw two different HUD-certified counselors; Kennedy spent hours being lectured by a Hope Now representative about how to manage her finances. But no one actually helped them get a modification. On their own, the couple submitted paperwork three times to their lender, Bank of America, and battled to get Hensley's income from her new job in food services included in the math. (The bank had insisted that only spousal income counted, not that of domestic partners.) Last Friday, Kennedy called BofA one more time, only to get an automated message. "Your modification has been canceled," Kennedy recalls hearing. "Your financials do not support a workout. Your house is currently in foreclosure." That same day they left for Chicago for the first protest of their lives.
Kennedy told us that she is outraged and disgusted at Bank of America's decision to reject her request while spending millions to lobby Congress. Indeed, as more and more Americans face foreclosure, the industry continues to devote staggering amounts of money to block regulatory reforms on Capitol Hill. So far in 2009, the nation's largest commercial banks have spent upwards of $27 million on lobbying expenses, the Center for Responsive Politics reports. That's in addition to the $50 million they spent in 2008 -- the same year the industry collectively cashed $700 billion bailout check.
"That $27.6 million could have kept so many people in their homes,"Kennedy told us. "The banks, my bank, Bank of America, got $45 billion in bailout money. What's a $100,000 mortgage to them? It's a drop in the bucket." Watch:
Rev. Robert Bushey of Decatur echoed that message, telling Congressit's time to rein in the banks. "They made our financial systemcollapse, and with their big money -- some of which they got from us --they're lobbying Congress," Bushey said. "[W]e want to reclaim ourdemocracy. We want to say to Congress, you have to chose people overprofit." Watch:
DAY THREE: OCTOBER 27, 2009
Tuesday marked the final day of the Showdown in Chicago and it began with a march across the Chicago River to the downtown Sheraton, home to the ABA's annual conference. Before the protesters headed out, SEIU International President Andy Stern addressed the crowd, saying, "If anyone is confused about why we're here, let me tell you: It's because we love our country." Watch it:
Chicago laborer Marcus Moore also told us why showed up for the march, saying that the economic problems facing his community "started at the top and it trickles down. And it's affecting us pretty hard. And I think the banks are to blame." Watch it:
Here is a slideshow of images from the march itself:
As of 11 a.m., thousands of participants were streaming up to the hotel to hear from the numerous speakers. Here's the view of the rally from above:
Among the speakers at the rally were Change to Win chair Anna Burger and Tom Balanoff, president of the SEIU Illinois State Council (which sponsors this website). "Did [the bankers] build anything? Create anything? Do anything?" Burger asked the crowd, which repeatedly responded "No!" Watch some excerpts from their remarks:
Here's a taste of the speech given by Angenita Tanner, a child care provider and member of SEIU Healthcare Illinois/Indiana. "America bailed out the banks," she told the crowd. "But the banks aren't bailing out the people!" Watch it:
Here's more footage from the rally, courtesy of SEIU and NPA:
And here is AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka addressing the protestors:
Action Now's Denise Dixon told the crowd that the bankers "had the nerve to have a party in Chicago and didn't invite us." "We came anyway!" a marcher yelled back. Watch it:
Finally, be sure to check out this great video recapping the three-day Showdown (produced by Heather Stone for the SEIU Illinois State Council):
Yesterday marked a solemn milestone for the service workers at the
Congress Hotel in downtown Chicago. For six years, four months, and 11
days, UNITE-HERE Local 1 members have 
