I’m here in the Windy City for the Change To Win convention. I’ve only got a few minutes before the convention goes back into session–and there is no wireless in the hall so it’s tough to get real-time stuff up (memo to unions: if you want reporters to get the message out, set up wireless in convention halls). So, here are some random thoughts/reports.

    First, I’m in favor of all unions holding one-day conventions–that’s how long this convention is going. Saves money, eliminates all the extraneous, meaningless speeches given by dignitaries etc. that just fill time. Sure, meetings were held before today–and there will be smaller strategy meetings tomorrow.

    The overarching them of the convention is Uniting For the American Dream. Edgar Romney, of UNITE-HERE and CTW’s Secretary-Treasurer, talked about some polling results, none of which are completely surprising given how bad the economy is for most people: 57 percent of those polled said that government policies had made their working lives harder;  9 out of 10 think unions can make their lives better; and a large majority think corporations have too much power.

    The most interesting part was a three-hour section reviewing the organizing strategy. CTW is focusing on four specific campaigns: a drive to organize drivers who truck stuff in and out of ports (which is about 100,000 workers); drug stores, home construction; and farm workers (you can read about the farm workers campaign in a post I did recently).

    Here’s a stat that caught my eye: there are 440,000 workers in drug stores nationwide. Only 8 percent are unionized–likely because a lot of them are part-timers.

    In the hotel industry, John Wilhelm, the president of the hotel division of UNITE-HERE reported that the union was able to organize 6,686 workers through card check at 44 hotels in 2006-2007 (a reminder for the uninitiated–card check is a procedure whereby a company agrees to recognize a union if a majority of workers simply sign a card asking that they be represented by the union–which avoids the time-consuming and employer-friendly process of slugging it out via the National Labor Relations Board). In addition, before 2004, there were only two cities–Boston and New York–where the union had card check agreements at hotels. Now, card check agreements are in place also in San Francisco, Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles and several other cities (on top of NY and Boston.)

    Terry O’Sullivan, president of the Laborers, gave a rip-roaring speech about the need for comprehensive immigration reform. "Politicians are trying to one up each other to see how harsh they can be towards immigrants…we have to fight for immigrant workers like never before," he said.

    Lastly, for now–the apparent front-runners for the Democratic nomination for president are appearing here–partly to try to win the endorsement of CTW (which I don’t think will happen) and, mainly, to appeal to the unions within CTW that have not made an endorsement. Yesterday, the executive board of SEIU met and is still not making an endorsement, though all three of the contenders–Obama, Clinton and Edwards– sent a team of high-level campaign operatives to meet with the union’s executive board. Barack Obama just spoke to the convention, John Edwards is on in a few minutes (1:15 Central Time) and Hillary Clinton will speak later this afternoon.

    Obama gave a solid performance–I’d give it a B-plus. He started out a bit flat, reading from prepared remarks. But, he got more animated later on and did well with the three scripted questions that were asked him. The key, no surprise, is that he promised to fight for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.