It didn’t happen with much fanfare, but evidently the strike at the (historic) Congress Hotel in Chicago ended last May.
For those not in-the-know, Congress Hotel employees walked off the job (supported by the Unite Here Local no. 1 union) in June 2003 demanding better working conditions and had picketed the hotel ever since. It was historic for reasons greater than duration, having boasted a then-Senator Barack Obama among its picket line back in 2007. The President-elect made his victory speech across the street at Grant Park in 2008.
This is an area notorious for unrest and protest. Less than two blocks south of the hotel was the heart of the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots, where then Mayor Richard J. Daley assured stunned viewers that the police were ‘not there to create disorder’. Whichever way you fall on those riots, it remains a shocking visage.
According to our bartender at the Congress Lounge (in the hotel), the union president and hotel president gifted an end to the strike to each other as retirement sendoff. The agreement allowed all those who had struck on Fathers Day 2003 to come back to their original positions some ten years later. Time Magazine tells a different story of the end of the strike, and the truth is probably somewhere in between the two iterations. We were told that the giant inflatable rat (and a whole family of other rats) appeared regularly on Labor Day.
Only a half dozen or so workers didn’t cross the picket lines but came back when the strike ended. Many of the 130 workers had come back or moved on a long time ago. Of the handful that came back after the strike ended, not many lasted more than a few weeks. At a month post-strike it was down to two. Then one.
But I can happily report that the one employee still cashes Congress Hotel paychecks here in late 2014. He’s a waiter named Martín (Mar-TEEN). He works breakfast. Ask for him and tip him well. He’s been waiting a long time for those tips. And if you get the chance, ask him what he’s been up to for the last decade. I’m sure it’s quite the story.
The hammered copper bar shines at the Congress Lounge. Click to view and follow us on Instagram.
.This is a heavenly place to come and write, much like the country always is. It always seems like wonderful balance to city life. The yin and the yang of artistic bounty. Spending some time in the city, and spending some time in the country. Seeing how both halves live, and understanding that there is beauty and a cornucopia of creativity buried not-too-deep from the surface.