Category Archives: Economic Justice

Elgin Custodians Will Stay

The ECC Board of Trustees has dropped plan to outsource the custodians.  Instead, they passed a new plan to seek an outside company which will provide SUPERVISION for the custodians.  They assured the audience that they will keep the present custodians as direct employees of the college, and that the custodians will keep their present benefits.  But they plan to pay for the new supervisory management contract out of savings which will come from new efficiencies. They expected this announcement to be greeted with gratitude, and to some degree it was.  But to many of us it appears that they new arrangement will mean that the custodians will have to work faster and harder and that their hours will be cut. I will be meeting with the head of the teachers union, some staff members and students and others to discuss  how we can keep on top of this situation. Clearly the board and the president felt the heat of the anger that they had stirred up over the past several weeks, and clearly they dropped the outsourcing plan as a result of that heat. Mary

ALEC Protest during 40th anniversary meeting in Chicago, Illinois

ALEC in Chicago: 10 Photographs that Tell the Story

by Harriet Rowan — August 21, 2013 – 7:07am
  • Projects: ALEC Exposed
 Share thisThe American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) had its 40th anniversary meeting in Chicago, Illinois, at the posh Palmer House (a Hilton Hotel) from August 7-9. ALEC claims that 1,200 people attended its meeting this year; the conventioneers included state legislators, corporate lobbyists, and right-wing operatives. ALEC was greeted by more than twice as many protestors, who came out to speak out against ALEC’s regressive policies. Whether they came to protest ALEC’s wage suppression agenda or its bills to voucherize public education or ALEC’s deadly legacy of “Stand Your Ground” gun laws, protesters carried the message “Stand Up to ALEC.”Here are some of the best images from ALEC’s annual meeting, which may not make the official ALEC photo album.Protestors drop three banners inside the Palmer House Hilton (Source: US Uncut)Protestors drop three banners inside the Palmer House Hilton (Source: US Uncut)

As corporate lobbyists and legislators were arriving, the Illinois Moral Monday Coalition made good use of the stunning background of the Palmer House lobby to drop simultaneously several anti-ALEC banners from the balconies. Six of the dozens of participants were arrested for their acts of civil disobedience in speaking out about ALEC.

Some of the banners read: “ALEC Makes For-Profit Prisons,” “Moral Monday: No To ALEC,” and “ALEC Attacks All Workers.” The Chicago Moral Monday Coalition partners include: local clergy and laypeople, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), National Nurses United (NNU), US Uncut, Chicago Youth Climate Coalition, Chicago Fracking Working Group, Communities United Against Foreclosures and Evictions, Young People’s Assembly on Violence and Youth Services Project, Southside Together Organizing for Power. read more