Questioning The Boss and Looking Out For The Members

I highly recommend that members attend and represent our interests at meetings that aldermen, other politicians, beat meetings, councils and civic organizations (I wear my union hat and shirt). My alderman has some very informative meetings. Please look through the handouts I picked up at this week's Town Hall (includes information about food and shelter):

Here is the video of the Town Hall (I brought up a point of disagreement regarding the Tax Doctor's pitting of union workers and pensions against our neighbors around the 01:58:00 mark): 

Unexpectedly, Mayor Brandon Johnson showed up at this Town Hall to promote his new budget for the city's 2026 year. For those who don't know, he is our top boss at the CTA. As an elected union leader, I made sure to submit a question:

Unfortunately, my question was not chosen. Unsurprisingly, like our membership and "executive bored" meetings, I am growing to become an annoying personality because of my unconditional defense for CTA workers. 

Usually, the mayor doesn't take questions (a bad practice). So this is an improvement. Still, it was too short of a session—and he talked too much for the answers.  

Nonetheless, the presentation for the budget was very convincing and I personally support it:

No property or grocery tax increase. Tax and fees increase on big business and the wealthy bloodsucking corporations. 

However, the budget book he published was not made available. Slideshows are good, but we need to check the math. You can access all the budget information here.

If your alderman has such meetings, make sure you attend and ask questions. 

 

I actually think this is still too low of a fee for vacant buildings. We have too much homelessness and high rents!

 

 

Alot of our coworkers rely on food stamps. Please check with case workers at IDHS and the website to see what your new qualifications will be! The federal government is going to make it much harder to get assistance over the next month.

 

 

I won an Affy Tapple and a year's worth of pizza in a raffle! A new Little Caesar's franchise opened up on Halsted. I think we need to do raffles at the union hall. 
 

 

Thanks to Bad Elf, I had an imaginary opportunity to upstage the mayor!

Here is the Budget Overview book (210 pages). Check it out and post what you think about it in the Comments below: