Shows might go if McCormick rules don't remain

The legal battle to keep McCormick Place labor reforms in place was ratcheted up this week as six major trade show customers stated in court filings that a rollback would be devastating and could lead to an exodus.

The statements, filed Thursday, ask U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Guzman to postpone implementation of his earlier ruling throwing out the labor changes, pending appeal by the state-city agency that runs the convention center. The state-imposed changes, in effect since last summer, give exhibitors the right to do more of their own booth set-up and limit labor overtime and crew sizes.

“The hardship that will be imposed on exhibitors by even a temporary reversal of the reforms will force me to look elsewhere for shows in future years beginning as soon as 2013,” stated Christopher Price, point person for Graph Expo and Print.

Representatives of the International Housewares Association, the American College of Surgeons, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and True Value Co. also filed statements saying they’d consider taking future shows to other cities.

“True Value cannot and will not select Chicago as a venue for future shows absent some assurance that the . . . labor reforms will remain in effect,” stated Susan Katz, director of corporate events.

And a representative of the National Restaurant Association stated a reversal of the state-imposed reforms would be a “customer relations disaster” for its 2011 show, which opens May 21, and would sabotage efforts to sign up exhibitors for 2012.

“The only thing that customers dislike more than last-minute changes are last-minute changes that threaten to increase their costs exponentially over what they have previously budgeted and planned for, and reinstate the dysfunctional and frustrating practices that was one of our main issues as a show manager,” stated Mary Pat Heftman, who runs the restaurant show.

Guzman has ruled that the National Labor Relations Act pre-empts states from enacting legislation that would interfere with the ability of private-sector employees to negotiate the terms of their employment. Most of the trade-union employees that set-up and tear down the shows work for private contractors.

The ruling came in parallel cases brought by the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters and Teamsters Local 727. In their filings, arguing against a delay in the rollback, they state their members have and will continue to suffer irreparable harm as a result of the state-imposed changes.

Between Aug. 1, 2010 and March 26, 2011, trade show carpenters lost a minimum of 26,408 hours of work, worth between $1 million and $1.75 million in wages, the council’s filing estimated. The ranks of trade show carpenters have shrunk from a 600 to 800 range, to a 400 to 500 range, it said.

And the Teamsters argue a postponement would interfere with its members right to bargain and erode the size of its bargaining unit. As well, it said members have lost health insurance because they are not working enough hours.