McHenry County Blog

Comments on Illinoize are now up to 20 on my story about the Chicago City Council's big box ordinance. You can read them here.

One commenter took me to task, probably justifiably, because I don't know unionization law as well as he must, for saying that the signature of a hospital chain president would be enough to put the designated employees in the union. I guess I should have said that it would relieve the union of the onerous work to get enough signatures to force an election. Thanks for the correction.

And, yesterday, on page 2, the Chicago Sun-Times ran a column by David Roeder which seemed even stronger than my story.

Under the heading “Missed opportunities,” here’s the last part of his column:

Workers' desperation writes the script for a union organizer, those that are left. But most unions won't pick up the opportunities handed to them. The U.S. Labor Department says union membership of the total work force is down to 12.5 percent from about 20 percent in 1983. But if you strip out government jobs, you've got a union share in the single digits.

The public sector is among the few areas showing union growth. It figures. Access to the workers is greased with campaign contributions, and there's an easy mark, the taxpayers, on the other end of the bargaining table. So the union brass won't dirty their hands with organizing the private sector. They're more comfortable at political fund-raisers than they are with people who could use their help.

So Wal-Mart avoids a head-on fight. In Chicago, the heirs of the Wobblies are weenies.

If my original story angered union supporters, what will this do?