Chicago Mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is
under attack by some of President Obama's top political supporters.
The
SEIU has committed half-a-million dollars to a new, anti-Rahm effort.
The money was approved by a state council as part of a document titled "Taking on the millionaires' mayor." The document says SEIU will brand the Mayor as "the national poster child for Neo-Liberals who are hell-bent on adopting regressive policies."
The SEIU also alleges the Mayor is adopting the tactics of "Right Wing" employers:
Mayor
Emanuel is using the city's procurement process to take advantage of a
loophole in Obamacare to jettison the health care costs of many city
contract work [sic]. Essentially, Rahm is doing the same thing to city
contract workers that Applebee's, Denny's, Papa John's Pizza and so many
other Right Wing national employers have announced they are doing to
their workers in the lead up to the implementation of Obamacare.
The
anti-Rahm spending is broken into three chunks in the document. There
is $100,000 set aside for polling and opposition research, $200,000 for
paid media such as radio and billboards, and a another $200,000 for
canvassing, mail, and phone calls.
The new tough stance by the SEIU
is the result of two contract disputes, the most recent of which involves
maintenance workers at Chicago's O'Hare airport. The city awarded a contract for janitorial services to the lowest bidder, a company called United Maintenance. As a result, 400 unionized workers left their jobs last Friday and will be replaced by non-union workers as part of the new contract.
Some
of the old workers at the site have already been rehired by the new
company. The exact number varies depending on whom you ask. The SEIU
says only about 50 have been rehired. United Maintenance claims the number is 110. Starting pay for the new employees is $11.90, fifteen cents less than the previous contract.
The anti-Rahm document complains that the
new contract is "not what workers expect from a Democratic mayor..."