If you're a civil-rights buff and have a couple of hours off today, you might want to stop by Roosevelt University.

Erik Gellman, a history professor at Roosevelt who helped me with yesterday's Blackstone article, mentioned a panel that commemorates the 40th anniversary of the struggle to integrate Chicago's building trades.

He explained that, although a lot of people tie the city's civil-rights movement with Martin Luther King Jr.'s efforts in the city, many of the really interesting things in the struggle happened in the few years later, when the debate moved from housing...more

When I was at the Congress Hotel in June, I ran into a couple who unwittingly booked a stay on the same day a worker strike there turned six years old.

A few yards below their room, the governor, state treasurer, several aldermen and union leaders from across the country staged a massive protest, shouting worker-solidarity chants into a megaphone.

It suffices to say that the couple didn't have the most peaceful stay. But if those folks come back to Chicago, they might be able to avoid a repeat experience.

Yesterday, the City Council's Finance Committee...more

A general partner at the Builders Center of Chicago has agreed to pay two workers $7,700 in wages they claimed were owed to them, according to the labor organization Arise Chicago.

The workers, Eladio Perez and Roberto Jacinto, planned to demonstrate outside the center with advocates tomorrow, but organizers at Arise have canceled the protest.

In a statement released yesterday afternoon, they said Anatoly Zarkhin promised to pay the workers for painting, maintenance and janitorial work they performed between October and May. He paid his first installment to them on Friday, after I mentioned the situation on...more

Teamsters Joint Council 25 endorsed Pat Quinn for his first full term as Illinois governor. Reuters

Labor groups renewed their campaign against Wal-Mart on Tuesday, launching a coalition that calls for improvements in the company's wages, health care, and environmental and labor policies. The UFCW began airing two commercials Tuesday in union-friendly cities such as Chicago. The Washington Post

More Wal-Mart: The company has been stymied in its effort to put a new generation of "supercenters" in Chicago and other cities. Los Angeles Times

Lee Sustar looks at solidarity...more

Congress Hotel Action
Community leaders will deliver an open letter to the management of the Congress Hotel, calling for an end to the six-year strike there.
Expected guests: Gov. Pat Quinn; Ald. Toni Preckwinkle; Ald. Toni Foulkes; Rev. Dr. Rita Root, Chicago Metropolitan Association of the United Church of Christ; Rev. Dr. Calvin Morris, Community Renewal Society; Rev. Larry Dowling, St. Agatha Catholic Church; and workers.
Location: Outside the Congress Plaza Hotel, 520 South Michigan Avenue.
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Contact: Jessica Lawlor at (312) 446-1767.

March for Immigrant Worker Rights
The rally will include a...more