^^^ Well considering the biggest costs of running a convention center are variable and most variable costs are in some way related to labor, then yes, I would say it boils down to unions. What "infrastructure" costs are you talking about? Parking? Most convention goers don't drive to the convention center, they fly in and take the train or a cab. The $250 million dollar cost probably doesn't even include cost.

Think of what it takes to stage a convention, you need to set everything up, you need security, you need people to keep things clean while its going on, you need people to direct traffic out front, you need information people, you need people to clean up and tear down after its over. How much do you think those labor costs are compared to the costs of the renting the stage pieces or buying the advertising materials to set up booths is? 1 to 2? 1 to 1? 2 to 1? 4 to 1?

Hate to break it to you but the biggest costs for large events is inevitably labor. I've actually helped organize small conventions and events and Loyola here in Chicago and the cost of the food and materials is always like a couple thousand bucks (for a couple hundred people) while the costs of paying the chefs, waiters, security people (required by the school), and clean up crew usually runs into the tens of thousands. And I'm pretty sure that only our security personal are unionized as well, I can't imagine what the expenses would be if we had to pay the waiters and bus boys $15 or $20 an hour instead of the $8 to $10 and hour they get now.

As Pip's comments reflect, it seems that the lowest-skill trades are always where unions are the laziest while the more skilled trades (that don't seem to affect our tourism and convention industries) like the operators and ironworkers unions are the hardest working and most beneficial.

Not a whole lot, considering that conventions rarely pay for an attendee's transportation cost. Even aggregately, it's a shitload less money to pay for a few cabs/cta/metra electric tickets than renting a car for a few days.

I mean, I guess they could just pave over Northerly Island and build an adjoining bridge. That would certainly ease the burden for the handful of events which locals actually go to McCormick. :rolleyes:

Yes, it was a generalization. Even the article mentions that other cost considerations were involved. However, the most glaring cost for a convention that everyone can point a finger to is labor cost.

What does it take for people to realize that unions are bad business? I suppose I'm just one of those people that believe in negotiating my own worth...

I agree, with several exceptions. Unions that form in industries that require a high degree of skill that can only be obtained through experience and contain relatively few employers and are locationally limited actually can benefit from collective bargaining because it encourages the standardization of skills between all the workers.

So basically many construction related unions are beneficial and are often looked upon positively even by the employer. The best example is the Ironworkers, those guys are the best, they all become experts in their trade and can throw up whole buildings in a matter of months. The union doesn't like members who make the others look bad and will throw you out if you are slow, stupid, or lazy and don't do your work and do it well. Same goes for operators unions, the people who control tower cranes are all highly trained and disciplined and the union makes sure they are. In these industries the unions offer a supply of labor that is of a certified quality and the employers know that if crane operator Bob is out sick for a week that crane operator Sally can step right in, at the same wage, and provide exactly the same level of highly reliable and skilled crane operation.

Hotel union warns future guests

Dick Abram, vice president of corporate relationships at EventLink International, Inc. in Dallas, contacted the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau last week after a client who he'd helped book a 400-person event in Chicago called to tell him that he had received a call from Unite Here about a possible strike and did not want to book the event in Chicago.

"Chicago is a great destination but in reality is it not a good business decision for me to place clients in cities where union staff call to harass my clients and tell them the hotels will be on strike when they are in your city," Abram wrote in an email to the CCTB. A copy of the email was provided to the Chicago Tribune.

Reached by phone, Abram would not reveal the name of his client. After his client complained, Abram said he called Lawlor at the union, who then did a "very convincing job of telling me not to book events in Chicago." Lawlor then followed up by sending a copy of the letter addressed to Chicago hotel customers, he said. Lawlor did not return a call seeking comment.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...0,732471.story


These Unions are freakin' incredible. Are they content with no jobs but they won? Its an International world out there and people have choices of where to go. Who in their right mind would want to pay higher costs and for lower quality services? Seriously you should hear the stories people have of McCormick place workers.

Medical group pulling trade show from Chicago after one visit
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society cites high cost of electrical services for moving 2012 meeting to Las Vegas

November 12, 2009


Chicago was ruled out after show exhibitors and organizers were slammed with electrical services bills that were four to 10 times greater than what they paid at last year's show in Orlando, Fla., for identical services, said Steve Lieber, president and CEO of the Chicago-based association.

One small exhibitor saw its electrical-services bill climb from $4,000 in Orlando to $40,000 in Chicago, for the same booth, he said, adding that others saw costs rise by four to eight times what they paid in Orlando.

While hourly rates are not significantly higher here, the number of workers required and the number of hours billed for identical jobs are much greater, he said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel...,4538483.story

when will they see the writing on the wall?

I also heard on WBBM that the Plastics show, that's been here since the 70's I think, is moving to Orlando.

They remind me of the No Games Chicago people.

My mother once ran a booth at a convention there and had to pay (and wait) for a union employee to come and plug an extension cord into the wall outlet for her.

Plus you have to pay for the pleasure.

I don't really feel that they need a union to do any of that. CPA's and doctors find a way to create barriers to entry, provide highly specialized training and maintain standards without unionizing.

It would make more sense to have state or federal laws require such training for ironworkers and crane operators...

You don't think that accountants, doctors, lawyers, and Realtors are unionized? They may not call themselves a union but the Bar Association, AMA, and other organizations all fall under the definition of trade unions. Can you hire a doctor that didn't graduate from an AMA certified (not sure if its the correct term) school? Can you hire a lawyer that hasn't passed the bar? As far as the economic definition of a union goes, all of these professional services are unions, except no one calls it that since you have to go to college for law, accounting, and medicine, and no "educated" person is going to want to say they are in a union.

Hey buddy, get back with me when I don't have to pay $90, yes ninety dollars to have one light bulb changed that I could easily do myself, but can't because of stupid restrictions.

This made me laugh. There are stories and stories just like this. One time my Mom was working some sort of event sponsored by the Chicago Junior League. There was a union hired chef that was so lazy and slow that my Mom felt compelled to jump behind the counter to assist. With her help, the line was reduced dramatically. But, of course, that's breaking union rules and she was told to stop helping....at a charitable event no less.

I'm a lawyer and you do not have to be a member of the ABA to work, be hired, or find clients. Passing the bar is absolutely unrelated to membership in an association. The ABA is nothing remotely like a union.

^ What?

Man, no offense but you really spew out a lot of uninformed nonsense when it comes to fields of study outside of business & finance.

In what way are doctors "unionized"? The AMA only represents a fraction of physicians in the US, and in no way do they dictate a damn thing to them. Secondly, and this is an important one, doctors cannot go on strike--it's called "patient abandonment" and subjects the physician to a claim for malpractice. Thirdly, a physician's salary is a contract between a healthcare facility and the physician him(her)self, without any involvement by the AMA or trade organization. Finally, physicians in private practice don't have a lock hold on their patients either--patients can change doctors whenever they please, unlike this arrangement in Illinois where companies have no choice but to hire employees from Union A or B, or what have you.

Physicians, as a whole, are independent contractors. This is different from low-skilled unionites who are members of a union and mindlessly abide by union rules & regulations for their mutual protection--they are represented entirely by union leaders, and when told to strike, they hand out signs and they march around like the useless dirtbags that they are.

If a physician doesn't like what he's getting paid, he says "fuck you" and finds another position somewhere else--no parading around the streets like spoiled children. That's why I moved from New York to Wisconsin ;)

From the Trib's Editorial:

"The total charge for four cases of Pepsi, delivered to our booth, was $345.39. The invoice breaks down to $254 for the four cases of Pepsi, a 21 percent service charge, and a 10.25 percent Illinois state sales tax, a 3 percent Chicago soft drink tax, a tax on the service charge, and a food and beverage tax. Government taxes totaled $38.06, which is more than the legitimate retail price of the soft drinks.

"Now, a nice man in a tuxedo delivered the Pepsi, along with a couple of buckets of ice and a few cups. Good service? Sure, but not worth $345.39."

-- Tim Hanrahan, CEO of a Massachusetts company that makes recycling machinery, on convention costs at McCormick Place.

That's my whole point. The residency program for doctors is actually funded by the federal government. The CPA exam is administered by the AICPA, which has specific requirements just to sit for the exam. But once certified, these people are able to negotiate their own worth. They don't strong-arm hospitals and CPA firms into actions that make them incapable of being competitive.

First of all, the fact that the AMA basically single handedly controls admission to all medical schools alone is enough to call it a union. You guys aren't understanding what I am saying because you are uninformed since you apparently don't know what the actual definition of a union is. It has nothing to do with going on strike or being a "member" of anything, it has to do with control of the supply of labor.

The AMA has gotten the government to pass laws that prevent anyone who isn't "educated" from working as a doctor. Therefore they control the supply of labor. If you want a better explanation read this (admittedly somewhat biased article) about it: http://mises.org/article.aspx?Id=1547

Anyhow, the AMA essentially controls admittance to med schools and, by administering strict entrance standards in med school, the number of doctors becomes limited, driving up wages, and equalizing quality of labor. Sound a little like a union?

The same also applies to the Bar/law schools. You can claim I'm wrong based on your apparent lack of knowledge of economic terms, but if you ask just about any economist, they will agree with me that those professions are basically silent unions...

Did I say you had to be a member? A profession doesn't need to have a membership organization to behave like a union. I've got my real estate liscense and you bet your ass its unionized, you don't have to be a member Realtor, but the Realtors control all of the classes and the testing process, so you essentially have to get "admitted" to the trade.

Let me put it this way for you guys, you don't have to be a member of anything when you are a professional union because, by nature of your education, you've already had to have been "admitted" and granted membership to your trade. There is no competing supply of doctors and lawyers, so why on earth would you have to belong to the AMA or bar to act as one? Once you are licensed you belong to the only union of your trade.

Monopsony is the concept that I'm talking about here, where there is one buyer and many sellers. A monopsony (its essentially the same thing as a Monopoly) on the labor market is a union. The Medical, Law, Real Estate Sales, and several other professional markets all function as monopsonys and are therefore in essence unions, whether they follow the same structure as labor unions or not. (Granted these professions are quite pure monopsonys, but explaining that is a lot more detail than necessary).

Wiki article on this topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopsony