Stories From the Front

Union Painters Protest Sauber Painting & Decorating of St. Charles

January, 2002; South Elgin, Illinois. Members of the Painters and Allied Trades District Council 30 picketed at the construction site of Chili’s Restaurant in South Elgin. The Restaurant is being built next to the new Prairie Crossing shopping center, at Randall and Silver Glen roads.

Charles Anderson, Secretary-Treasurer, was quoted in the Kane County Chronicle of January 12, 2002: "They are paying less than union scale, that’s our concern." The painting firm, Sauber Painting & Decorating is not a party to the Union’s collective bargaining wage contract. Present at the demonstration was the District Council 30’s "Rat Patrol," an automobile parked at protests such as this. Along side the patrol car was a large, inflated model of a rat. While work continued at the site, union painters appear to have refused to enter the site.