A union push wins results in Chicago: could the progressive wins be a model for other local elections?

IN APRIL, during Chicago's municipal elections, several union members stopped by Lillie McCrea's house and asked if she would vote for city council candidate JoAnn Thompson.

The campaigners, all Black and Latina women from UNITE HERE and the Service Employees International Union, had their pitch ready. Thompson, they said, was going to help turn the neighborhood around.

"I've lived here for 25 years," McCrea said. "We vote for people, but it's kind of discouraging because we don't hear from them after that."

Similar scenes played out thousands of times in Chicago last winter as SEIU, UNITE HERE, AFSCME, the United Food and Commercial Workers and other service-sector unions comprised of predominantly people of color helped elect a slate of candidates for the city council. The results have grabbed the attention of political leaders and union officials across the country. Chicago, after all, isn't known for political change. Mayor Richard M. Daley has ruled the city with an iron grip, thanks in part to a political "machine" of patronage workers that has overwhelmed opponents. As a result, the Chicago City Council has long been filled with aldermen who support the mayor or owe their seats to him. But the service-industry unions vowed to form their own "machine-like" political organization after Daley vetoed an ordinance last summer that would have required large retailers to pay workers at least $13 an hour in wages and benefits.

The plan worked. Six union-backed challengers won--including JoAnn Thompson and Sandi Jackson, wife of U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.--by knocking out Daley allies. The impact was greatest in the city's low-income, predominantly Black wards, which elected five of the new union-endorsed aldermen. "The key to these upsets is that they're the wards where we have the largest membership, and our membership came out and voted at a 10-percent-higher rate than other voters," said Jerry Morrison, executive director of SEIU's Illinois council.

The newly elected aldermen are promising an agenda "for working families," perhaps including another version of the minimum wage ordinance, more affordable housing, and improved city services in Black and Latino communities.

Meanwhile, the union leadership is already planning meetings to talk about replicating their successful campaigns. "I think there are national implications to this," said Morrison. "It's a pretty good model: Local progressive labor teams up and pools resources. We can make a difference in local elections."