Protecting A Job Description While Losing The Job

Terrance McGann is proud of the legal work he's done for the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters.

Thanks to him, the carpenters have rescued a job description. In the process, however, the carpenters will end up losing the job.

The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority understood the complaints of trade show groups, who were so upset about outlandish union rules regarding set-up and take-down of exhibits that Chicago was losing trade shows at a frightening rate.

To staunch the flow of financial blood, the Authority decreed that unions could no longer gouge exhibitors. By allowing exhibitors to do some of the work themselves (that includes dangerous work like plugging in an extension cord), the trade show attendees could save some money and they wouldn't be so likely to go to Vegas or Orlando.

With the new legislation in place, the Exposition Authority found that customers who threatened to up stakes agreed to keep their show in Chicago, and those who had avoided Chicago because of the old union rules decided to give it a try under the new and improved schedule.

Not so fast, said the Teamsters. They went to court to stop the changes, and Judge Ronald Guzman found that state governmental bodies couldn't alter collective bargaining agreements. The rules governing McCormick Place trade shows fit into that particular slot.

Citing recent political machinations in Wisconsin, attorney McGann waxed triumphant. There'd be no cutting his carpenters out of the vast sums to be gained from the various trade shows that present their wares in Chicago.

Except that the trade shows aren't exhibiting their wares at Chicago trade shows like they used to because the union acted like a parasite and sucked the life out of them.

The very rules that Mr. McGann fought to preserve are the same rules that ran up costs and made Chicago non-competitive.

Well done, Teamsters.

In a grand gesture of union solidarity, you've protected guarantees of work hours that were highly beneficial to the union members.

And you've ensured that those same union members won't have work because the trade shows will turn around and go elsewhere, as they were before the modifications were put in place.

Rather like a starving man pointing to the big fish he caught, the one that's mounted and stuffed for exhibit but can't provide a morsel of food to keep him alive. It's a point of pride, perhaps, but other than that, it's worthless.