Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot joined forces with Walgreens to announce that vaccination clinics will open at 10 major office buildings, seven of them in downtown Chicago. The others will be in Rockford, with two locations, and Schaumburg. Clinics will be open during shift changes to capture the greatest number of employees.
Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
Before the stay-at-home shutdown triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, more than 600,000 employees worked at Chicago’s impressive array of downtown office buildings.
They’re starting to trickle back to work, but the key to opening up the floodgates is getting even more employees vaccinated by bringing the vaccine to those workplaces.
Originally published on May 5, 2021 11:51 pm
Illinois’ economy was humming along last winter, a few years removed from the state’s two-year budget impasse in which Illinois’ unpaid bill backlog climbed to nearly $17 billion, and finally experiencing the kind of growth that had eluded the state for years after the Great Recession.
But then COVID-19 hit. Gov. JB Pritzker ordered bars and restaurants closed a few days after the World Health Organization declared the virus a global pandemic, and then a broader stay-at-home order from the governor a week later shuttered dozens of other types of businesses throughout the state.
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Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file
Janitors who clean downtown and suburban office buildings ratified a three-year contract that provides wage increases, job recall rights and other benefit gains, their union said Monday.
Service Employees International Union Local 1 said the agreement covers about 10,000 people. The negotiations involved the Buildings Owners and Managers Association of Chicago and contractors in the suburbs.
Union spokesman Nick Desideri said downtown janitors secured a more than 6.3% wage hike over the life of the deal. He said that in the suburbs, janitors will see a 7.7% raise over three years plus doubled employer contributions to the 401(k) retirement plan.