Unions drain revenues from Chicago.

Unions will be an ongoing subject here at RightCondition because of their paramount importance and their ability to prolong recessions.  From an economic standpoint unions prolong damage by refusing to cooperate on wages and by creating unbearable entitlements for companies.  Wage cooperation is the primary source of frustration because union bosses historically will never negotiate for lower pay even in the face of a contracting economy. 

Even though our central bank is trying to inflate and expand our way out of yet another much needed contraction, deflationary pressures are visible throughout the business sector.  When credit dries up, as we have seen recently with banks refusing to lend, due to oversupply of goods (despite federal government trying to intervene), businesses must contract.  An oversupply of merchandise drives prices lower and businesses are forced to curtail production.  By curtailing production they dispose of investments and labor is just another investment.  They can certainly dispose of labor by laying people off or they can reduce wages to match the newly reduced prices for the goods produced.  Unions refuse to this and this is precisely what happened at the start of the Great Depression.  

As you can imagine, contraction of production and lower prices while paying the same wages yields significant problems.  By refusing to negotiate for lower prices, unemployment becomes the common theme.  Once again, precisely what happened in the Great Depression and what is starting to happen now.  Just like minimum wage laws create unemployment, so do unions by maintain an artificial fixed price on wages. 

A perfect example can be found in one of the most corrupt cities in America.  Not only do the good people of Chicago have to deal with crushing taxation, but they have to do with unions.

Chicago ditched. Tens of thousands of outsiders say it's too expensive to spend their money here; $52 million would have been pumped into our economy by some 28,000 visitors. Instead, a major trade show says it's leaving Chicago behind for good.

...
Now, it's happened. McCormick Place electricians were the straw that broke the camel's back for one Chicagoan who says he reluctantly said "no" to bringing his convention back home.


The Tribune reports the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, which held its annual meeting at McCormick Place for the first time in April, is taking its 2012 show to Las Vegas instead.
"Our costs were about $200,000 more," said Lieber. "So it went from $40,000 to $240,000 for the electrical work alone."
...
The International Plastics Showcase has been in Chicago since 1971, but now a spokesman says: "We are looking at other options."


Like Orlando. Though the medical trade group says it's deeper than union versus non-union towns.

"It was the number of hours and the number of people it took to do the identical job," Lieber said.

This is very sad.  You cannot in any rational manner defend this, when the costs for the same work are 2x or 3x as much due to unions, we have significant problems.  In this particular case Chicago suffers and so do it's residents as revenues get sapped and politicians desperate to mop up budget gaps turn to taxation.  God forbid they actually reduce their own salaries and shut down a few departments - well, that just wouldn't be Chicago now would it? 

All over America the same bloated unions with their lofty pensions and inflated wages dominate the landscape driving up unemployment.  Whether it be united auto workers or the local teacher union, the actions are the same and so are the results.