Credit: Christine Geovanis / www.hammerhard.org

Public Sector Workers Unite: Facing the Budget Crisis. Forums and strategy sessions with Chicago public sector workers from several unions:

Saturday, October 31, 2009 9:30am - 3:30pm, UE Hall, 37 S. Ashland, Chicago, IL. $5. Free for the unemployed.

• 9:30am-10 Registration and coffee.
• 10-11:30 "What We Face” What caused this crisis?
• 11:30-1pm "What We’re Doing” Resistance and lessons learned.
• 1-2 Lunch (provided) and Breakout sessions by union.
• 2-3:30pm "Where Do We Go From Here?” How can we defend jobs and services?

Sponsors Labor Notes, AFSCME 2858, AFSCME 2258 Caucus of Rank and File Educators

Questions? Local Contacts: Pete Anderson, AFSCME 2858, 773-638-5739; Steven Edwards, AFSCME 2858, welfarewrkr [at] igc [dot] org

Malcolm X College buzzed with a fresh energy at Chicago's Troublemakers School on the economic crisis in early May—-more than half of the school’s 175 attendees were first-timers to a Labor Notes event.

Members from dozens of unions and workers’ centers met up to build skills for power on the job—and sought the chance to envision big picture solutions to the accelerating squeeze on working people.

Workshops focused on contract rights, grievance handling, and changing one’s union from within, as well as organizing and bargaining in the crisis. Other sessions focused on labor history and the roots of the economic collapse. Mid-day meetings gave reform groupings like Teamsters for a Democratic Union a valuable strategy session. Other lunchtime meet-ups on single-payer health care, and a talk with the authors of the newly-released Staley, were packed to the walls.

Members of AFSCME, Teamsters, the Chicago Teachers Union, Transit Workers, SEIU, UE, Firefighters, NNOC, ARISE Chicago, Restaurant Opportunities Center, Latino Union, IBEW, UNITE HERE, USW, and APWU showed up in force. The cross-union and cross-sector mix was crucial. At the end of the workshop on public sector battles, a room full of teachers, health care workers, and community allies voted unanimously to form a solidarity committee for coordinating a stronger response to the budget squeeze in Chicago.

School-goers gathered in the afternoon to hear how a growing group of teachers in the Caucus of Rank and File Educators have jump started their union in the fight against school privatization and closure. Teamsters 743 President Richard Berg passed on wisdom from the local’s victory against a corrupt leadership, providing lessons for taking on bigger fights once you’ve won.

Then Jobs with Justice director James Thindwa introduced Ricky Maclin. As Vice President of UE Local 1110, Maclin and his co-workers led the victorious six-day sit-in at Republic Windows and Doors in December, which has led to the plant’s re-opening by a green-friendly window maker. Since the sit-in, Maclin has traveled the country with an inspired message: in the face of layoffs, concessions, and closures, we have to fight to win. “When I was a kid, they always called me a troublemaker,” he joked. “Now, I’m proud to be called a Troublemaker.” The day closed out amid a standing ovation and resounding chants of “Si, Se Puede!”

“It felt like we just re-lived Republic,” said Adam Kader from ARISE Chicago.