Rockford Is a Union Town – and BAC Solidarity Is Keeping It That Way

When Hard Rock announced plans to build a new casino in Rockford, Illinois, the area’s unions started imagining what it could mean to win, and win big. Working together through Rockford United Labor (the local Central Labor Council, or CLC), the unions developed a plan to, in the words of CLC President Sarah Dorner, “fight for something we hadn’t ever done before. We wanted to make our motto, ‘Rockford is a union town,’ a reality, and we brought together a diverse group of affiliates to form an organizing coalition.” 

First, BAC and the building trades won a project labor agreement, guaranteeing that the casino would be built union. But the CLC also wanted the jobs created inside the finished casino to be union. So when it came time to fight for the stagehands, BAC Illinois ADC 1 loaned their Scabby the Rat and fat cat inflatables to win that fight, and in a powerful show of solidarity, building trades members helped the stagehands get their contract.  Today, the CLC is well on the way to establishing a wall-to-wall unionized workplace at the Hard Rock. And success breeds more organizing - the casino coalition is helping to develop even more organizing leads.  

“Solidarity is everything,” said Illinois ADC 1 President Mike Volpentesta. “We’re proud we could help the stagehands win their union, and we’re looking forward to working with Rockford United Labor to win more union jobs for BAC – and for all our union brothers and sisters.”