Mayor Richard Daley today dismissed a proposed customer “bill of rights” for McCormick Place conventioneers, saying it wouldn’t begin to address the high costs of doing business there.
“They can have a bill off rights all they want. It’s costs,” Daley said.
Union leaders proposed the bill of rights this week as a way to inform exhibitors what rules workers must follow, and how much goods and services cost at McCormick Place. But Daley said that won’t help keep shows in Chicago.
“You can have all the bill of rights — that doesn’t do anything,” the mayor said after an anti-violence rally in the Roseland neighborhood. “What we’re asking for is how you lower the costs. It’s as simple as that. If Atlanta and Vegas and Orlando is doing a better job — we don’t want to lose any shows.”
Labor officials and the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority — which runs McCormick Place — have been under pressure from Daley and lawmakers to overhaul the business model at the lakefront convention center since last fall, when two high profile shows defected to Orlando, Fla., and Las Vegas, citing high costs in Chicago.
Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to sign legislation approved this week replacing the 13-member exposition authority board with a seven-member interim board tasked with reporting to the state legislature on how to save money at McCormick Place.
Daley and Quinn have endorsed a plan to give McPier, as the exposition authority is known, greater control over unions whose members work at McCormick Place. But the mayor said today he’s not blaming unions for the trade show exodus.
“This is about keeping shows here in Chicago, because they pay sales tax, they pay a lot of taxes, and they put a lot of people to work,” Daley said.
Read the original article from WGN Radio Chicago.