Sunday, July 26, 2009

Tribune Article on Congress Hotel Strike

Not much new information in the article, but it's more or less a good update on the strike at the Congress Hotel. If you're not familiar with the strike, it's been going on for over 6 years and doesn't look to be ending anytime soon.

One interesting thing in the article was that it gave a sense of the owner of the hotel, Shlomo Nahmias. According to the article:
Those who have met Shlomo -- as he insists on being called -- recall him as a teddy bear of a man, friendly and playful in a gruff sort of way. He greets even new acquaintances with a slapping handshake and a hug. When the strikers were his employees, he'd greet them with the likes of "honey" or "dearie."

He's still a presence in their lives. Along with his wife and their dog, Nahmias lives in the hotel and takes a daily stroll down Michigan Avenue. That gives the strikers a flesh-and-blood target for the dogged determination they perhaps wouldn't have if they were fighting an impersonal corporation, invisible to them.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Obama promised to march with the protesters at the Congress Hotel. When is that going to happen?