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Welcome to the Trades & Labor website
Welcome to the Bloomington & Normal Trades & Labor Assembly web site. Here you will find current news articles from the Grand Prairie Union News , community services updates, a thorough labor history of both Bloomington and Normal, Illinois (including pieces on early Irish railroad laborers, Mother Jones' exciting 1917 visit and the 1978 Normal fire fighters strike), and an archive of labor book, film, and music reviews. You can reach us at 309-828-8813, P.O. Box 3396, Bloomington, IL 61702.
Historically, the “chamber of commerce” in a community represents its business interests, while labor unions represent workers.
At the nation’s capitol and in Springfield you’ll often find them on opposite sides when it comes to issues of minimum wages or workers’ compensation.
In McLean County, however, local unions have built a long-term relationship with the local business community. Thus it was extraordinary, but not necessarily surprising, when the McLean County Chamber of Commerce named Laborers International Union of North America Local 362 its “small business of the year.”
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Union solidarity by Bloomington concrete redi-mix drivers has improved conditions at one shop and dramatically changed conditions at a previously non-union operation.
Remarks for Senator Barack Obama to the Building Trades National Legislative Conference, Washington, DC
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
We meet here at a challenging time for our families and a challenging time for America. All across the country, Americans are anxious about their future. In a global economy with new rules and new risks, they’ve watched their government do its best to try and shift those risks onto the backs of the American worker. And they wonder how they will ever keep up.
On April 19, the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum was formally dedicated in Springfield. President George Bush was there, along with Governor Rod Blagojevich, Senator Dick Durbin and Congressmen RayLaHood and Dennis Hastert. Your editor was in the audience and was deeply moved by Senator Barack Obama’s words. Obama spoke about Lincoln’s heritage and its reflection in our current political climate. There are some excellent points here worth reading carefully and pondering.
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