(A.
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The City of Chicago has long been known as "The City That Works"; and
WHEREAS, Our city earned that accolade because it was populated by hard-working, dedicated men and women determined to build an international center of business, industry, finance and commerce; and
WHEREAS, Throughout its history, Chicago has never lost sight of the contribution the working men, women and families of our city have made to its growth, development and prosperity; and
WHEREAS, Chicago continues to honor the contribution of working men and women by holding their right to seek representation and bargain collectively as inviolate; and
WHEREAS, Chicago stands as, arguably, the most important and influential city in Midwest and one of the most important and influential cities in the United States; and
WHEREAS, Our city is a leader in and an example of government, businesses and employees working in partnership to meet the challenges of generating economic development, improving our infrastructure, providing services to those that inhabit our great city, protecting our neighborhoods, and educating our children; and
WHEREAS, Surrounding cities and states look to Chicago as an example of what a united commitment to common goals and common ideals can accomplish; and
WHEREAS, Chicago has a duty and responsibility to stand for the value and integrity of working men and women, especially their rights to union representation and collective bargaining; and
WHEREAS, President Barack Obama, a Chicago resident, in a campaign speech given on November 3, 2007 pledged that "if American workers are being denied their right to organize when I'm (he) is in the White House, I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes and I will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States"; and
WHEREAS, The right of representation and collective bargaining, which we hold as sacrosanct, is under siege in some neighboring states causing unrest and consternation amongst working men and women and the organizations that represent them; and
WHEREAS, As the deliberative body of our city, the City Council has an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to working men and women to ensure that they have the freedom to collectively bargain; now therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED, We, the Mayor and Members of the City Council of the City of Chicago assembled here, this 9th day of March, 2011, do hereby stand with the working men and women of Chicago, and working men and women everywhere, as they seek to preserve and protect their legal right to representation and collective bargaining, and urge others to acknowledge those rights and recognize the integrity, respect and justice that inure there from.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we, the Chicago City Council, urge President Barack Obama to keep his campaign promise to the working men and women of the United States of America to walk the picket line with them during this battle to retain their rights to organize and collectively bargain throughout the nation.
/ .Alderman John A. Rice £/36th Ward