Quote:
Originally Posted by BVictor1
I think that we should also remind ourselves that the AFL-CIO can always pump in more money at a later date. If my memory serves me correctly, they were going to invest up to $500 million into the olympic village. The proposed $170 million could just be a start.
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I think that unions would be generally inclined to show greater support for a public project like the Olympic Village than they would a private project like the Spire. In the case of the former, there is more of a guarantee of seeing a return on the investment, there is more of a guarantee that the thing won't fall apart anyway, unions have better relationships with city leaders than they do with construction companies, and even if the Olympic Village were to fail to break even, a union could sidestep the fallout with its members and argue that the Olympics are important way to bring all people together, good for Chicago and good for the world, it brings jobs to people all through the city, and they were only pitching in.
It's really different when you're building an extremely high-end tower for the super-rich, with your blue-collar construction workers. The investment is harder to defend, I think. I personally think it's great that they're playing a role in this, but I wouldn't expect unions to ramp up investments to the same level as they were willing to for the Olympics.