In Chicago, the script has been set and the actors are now left to fight it out. SEIU officials, including its well-paid president Andy Stern, have been trying to flex their muscles after Mayor Richard Daley swatted away the union’s favored “Big Box Living Wage.” The law was intended to pressure discount retailer Wal-Mart, but it set off a firestorm of business and community supporters telling the SEIU and the UFCW where to stick it. But the players have now moved onto the next act: aldermanic elections, which SEIU is trying to influence with its ample cash.
Lynn Sweet, in a Chicago Sun-Timescolumn fawning over Stern, highlighted his main weapon:
Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune reports, Wal-Mart contributed $100,000 Wednesday to a fund created by Daley’s supporters for aldermanic allies in tightly fought campaigns.
And there are new calls to restrict the amount of union member money that labor bosses can dump into city politics. A powerful voice of support comes from today’s Sun-Times editorial page, which argues: