Chicago mayor hands over millions to United Airlines

United Airlines announced Aug. 6 that it will be relocating its central operation headquarters to downtown Chicago’s Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) from its current location in suburban Elk Grove. The airline decided to move because the “financial incentives offered by the city more than outweighed cheaper real-estate prices at suburban locations.” (Wall Street Journal, Aug. 6).

Neighborhood protest of proposed use of up to $10 million in TIF money for luxury condo development. Photo: Susan Yanun

What kind of incentives has Chicago Mayor Richard Daley offered to United Airlines? The city will give the corporation $25 million of taxpayers’ money, all the while telling workers to tighten their belts during the current capitalist economic crisis. The airline has slashed its workforce by half since 2000 and has admitted that the move to Willis Tower will create no new jobs. It is simply a way for the corporation to boost its profits for executives and investors on the backs on the working people and oppressed communities of Chicago.

But Mayor Daley does know how the city will get its money back: Tax the workers, of course! Daley claims that Chicago will recoup those funds from the United workers, who will now have to commute to the new downtown Chicago headquarters, ride the trains, eat out and maybe even relocate—renting apartments or buying condos. But with the way Chicago’s public funds never seem to make its way to working people, this would-be new spending merely translates into more money for big business.

Stooge of the moneyed class

This corporate handout to United Airlines further establishes Mayor Daley as an unapologetic stooge of the ruling moneyed class and an enemy of the workers. Daley’s allegiance to capitalist interests and his legacy of transferring pubic wealth into private hands is astounding. Earlier this year, the mayor privatized the city’s parking meters, giving control of them over to Morgan Stanley, which has since quadrupled the rates, eliminated free holidays and Sundays and installed new meters at places like public parks and community centers.

Facing massive deficits, Mayor Daley never hesitates to dole out hundreds of millions of dollars in city funds to political cronies and corporate leeches. In 2008, Daley cashed in the money accrued by the designation of the Central Loop tax increment financing district. TIF money is supposedly raised to boost economic development in depressed areas, fix schools and maintain public parks. However, through major loopholes in Illinois state law concerning such funds, Mayor Daley was able to take the money and rain cash all over his corporate constituents.

Construction companies with ties to Daley received tens of millions of dollars. He gave over $100 million to corporate giants to renovate their offices. The Chicago Transit Authority received $60 million for projects that have never been started. The CTA now claims that it needs more money to pay for the actual tracks as they threaten to raise fares, cut services and lay off workers.

Mayor Richard Daley’s robbery of Chicago’s public funds and property is nothing short of criminal. Workers should never tolerate the capitalist lies spouted from the mouths of their mindless puppets in all levels of government. We must not pay for an economic crisis that they have created. The capitalists have made their own bed … let them sleep in it!