Progress Illinois

Before there was the Hyatt or the Ritz-Carlton, there was the Congress Hotel. Erected within spitting distance of Chicago’s Grant Park on the eve of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, the Congress prided itself on providing a luxurious resting spot for the world’s well-to-do. Its opulent banquet hall was the first American hotel ballroom to use air-conditioning. Its chic nightclub featured a revolving bandstand of the nation’s finest musicians, including bandleader Benny Goodman, who recorded his radio show on location in 1935 and 1936. It was even dubbed the “Home of Presidents,” playing host to eight commanders-in-chief (Cleveland, McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, and Roosevelt) and serving as the Democratic Party’s headquarters throughout the 1932 election cycle.

Over a century after it opened, the Congress is still drawing the attention of presidential hopefuls. Last July, Barack Obama took some time off to visit the hotel. While in Chicago for the Yearly Kos political convention a few weeks later, John Edwards swung by the Michigan Avenue landmark as well. Unfortunately for the proprietors of the Congress, neither candidate stepped foot in the building, choosing instead to march outside with hotel employees picketing for a just wage.

This Thursday marks the fifth anniversary of the Congress Hotel strike, a struggle waged by members of UNITE-HERE Local 1 that has become a symbol of city-wide efforts to lift low-wage service workers out of poverty. While Congress strikers have garnered national notoriety because of their determination, the employees haven’t reaped the same material rewards as their colleagues across the city. And unless negotiations between the union and hotel management accelerate, the strike could last for years to come.

"We thought it was going to be a short strike"

Despite warnings from leaders in his union, Jose Sanchez did not anticipate an extended work stoppage back in 2003. A cook at the Congress’ restaurant, he had just seen UNITE-HERE reach a landmark deal with virtually every other hotel in the city -- boosting workers’ wages and benefits significantly -- and he was convinced his employer would eventually follow suit. Five years later, he’s still on the line without an additional penny to show for it. “We thought it was going to be a short strike,” he says, “but we found out different.”

Why were Congress employees neglected during those historic 2002 negotiations? Almost a decade prior, the owners of the Congress had pulled out of a multi-employer association that served as the bargaining group for a majority of Chicago hotels. Instead, the Congress brass went at it alone, initiating discussions with the union in December 2002, days before their contract was set to expire.

Talks moved at a snail’s pace throughout the winter, and when the hotel proposed its final offer in May 2003, all the union could do was scoff. The owners refused to pay increases in health and welfare premiums, sliced wages by seven percent (pushing them 26 percent below the newly-set industry standard), and refused to guarantee raises for the remainder of the contract. So on June 15, 2003, 115 staff members -- room attendants, cooks, bartenders, telephone operators, and others -- voted almost unanimously to strike.

Little progress has been made since the détente began. In fact, Congress employees watched UNITE-HERE win another contract for the city’s housekeepers in 2006, meaning the Congress’ average hourly wage of $8.21 now sits 37 percent below the region’s average.

A stubborn front office

The owners of the Congress have matched their employees’ persistence, refusing to budge from their paltry 2002 offer. They argue that because the Congress is independently owned, it’s at a competitive disadvantage with national and regional chains that can afford to beef up their overhead costs by increasing room rates.

But the tale of a struggling Mom and Pop operation obscures some crucial facts about the hotel’s front office.

The ownership group is led by Albert Nasser, a Syrian-born, Israeli-bred textile tycoon who, according to a 2006 Chicago Tribune profile, “fanned out across the globe [in the early 1950s] ‘and established a tri-continental business empire stretching from the Philippines to Brazil’ ” with two of his brothers.

One of their ventures, Gelmart Industries, is of particular interest to UNITE-HERE. A distributor to discount retail stores like K-mart, Wal-Mart, and Dollar General, the union sent inspectors to one of the company’s Philippine factories in 2004 and reported back that employees work in substandard conditions and receive less than the legal minimum wage.

“This is a family that is worth millions and millions of dollars spread over three continents,” says Annemarie Strassel, communications specialist for Local 1. “They are surely capable of having some kind of meaningful dialogue with these workers and meeting the standard that every other union hotel in this city has met.”

While the Congress has had its fair share of financial difficulties over the years, filing for bankruptcy once in 1995, the Nasser crew seems committed to the property. It’s clear why: due to its ideal location, the building is extremely valuable (a 2006 estimate pegged the price at $50 million). Furthermore, they’ve owned the property since 1987 and have sunk a considerable amount of resources into the project since taking over.

“If you go in there, you can see all the money they put into the hotel,” says Sanchez. “Where did they get that money from if it’s not from profits?”

What’s unclear is why the Nassers would be so reluctant to settle the strike and repair their public image. “We know that they’ve lost millions of dollars in business because people have not wanted to cross the picket lines,” says Strassel. “So I don’t think this is just about money for them.”

Hoping for a happy ending

While the globetrotting Nasser clan continues to claim they don’t have the means to raise wages, the striking workers have been forced to deal with legitimate economic hardship. Although hotel management told Crain’s Chicago Business last year that 30 of the original employees have crossed the line, a sizeable contingent has remained active. At eight in the morning last Wednesday, 20 members walked with signs in tow under the hotel’s marquee, conversing with Congress guests and interested passersby.

Employees squeeze in visits to the Congress when they can -- fitting in strike shifts around second jobs and family obligations -- but the union makes sure that at least one member is stationed in front of the hotel every day between six in the morning and nine at night.

“We’ve gotten other jobs, part-time here and there. The union helps us economically a little bit, so we’re able to survive,” says Sanchez. “But it’s been hard.”

Strassel says that without the solidarity of their co-workers, the strike would have collapsed years ago. “I know just from getting to know people,” she says, “that there’s been a tremendous amount of support that they offer each other out here on the line.”

The upcoming anniversary has done little to speed up negotiations; Sanchez says that it’s been almost a year since the two sides convened. UNITE-HERE thought they received a boost in April 2007 when the union-backed challenger Robert Fioretti defeated 2nd Ward Alderman (and hotel apologist) Madeline Haithcock. Shortly after being sworn in, Fioretti met with Congress personnel and vowed “not [to] issue or approve any permits” for a planned expansion of the hotel -- which has been cited for numerous building code violations -- until the strike was resolved. But instead of acquiescing to Fioretti’s demands, ownership just fired back, suing the alderman for “using his influence” to block permits Haithcock had endorsed.

Even though progress is slow, the union will hold a public commemoration of the anniversary Thursday to celebrate the Congress employees’ fortitude and further publicize the Nassers’ irrational inflexibility. The annual event has become a powerful, albeit unfortunate, summer tradition. “It’s the one time of year,” says Strassel, “where it really gives us pause and time to think about what kind of sacrifice people are willing to make.” Beginning at 4 p.m. in front of the hotel, hundreds of supporters, including leaders from the labor, religious, and political community, are expected to turn out to hear speeches from strikers and UNITE-HERE representatives.

For Sanchez, the action is another ray of hope in a battle he believes is well worth waging. “We hope … that this might have a happy ending someday and that’s what keeps us going,” he says. “Even if it’s not for us, maybe it’s for the people who come after us, so they can have decent pay.”

Images used under a Creative Commons license by Flickr users Yuan2003, John Edwards 2008, Matt Smath, and Swanksalot.