Hardly getting over it
Just a chill reminder up top that workers have no leverage as long as employers control our basic ability to be healthy and well.
A couple of real good cases in point: Target and Amazon are both planning to open warehouses in the Chicagoland area. Target is looking at Little Village, specifically in a redevelopment of a former coal plant that the community rallied against. City Council, of course, completely ignored residents and aldermen and gave the redevelopment $19.7 million in tax breaks in exchange for the hope of 180 full-time jobs and the work future tenants could offer.
Don’t do the math, there’s still so much of Friday left to get through. Just consider donating to Enlace, which does great work to protect the residents of Little Village.
Amazon, meanwhile, is looking suburban with plans for warehouses in Downers Grove and Palatine. We’re not proud that our first thought was, “Ew, Amazon can have them,” but today is not a day for pride. Amazon is now the ninth biggest employer in Chicagoland and the largest outside of government, healthcare and higher education. Wowowow wonder what a little organizing could do?
Speaking of controversial developments, Sterling Bay has the first tenant in its building full of lab space for life sciences companies, conveniently located next to Lincoln Yards. Exicure of Skokie says it plans to put 20 people in The Labs at 2430 N. Halsted, formerly known as Lurie Children’s Manne Research Institute.
Matt Moog — early online coupon profiteer and until today head of customer review management tool PowerReviews — is opening up a venture studio and investing in startups. Hello, we have a furious little newsletter that will provide no return on investment!
OK probably not, but you can always pay us.
Give & Go, the Canadian company behind Two-Bite brownies and other baked goods, is definitely getting the money. Mondelez is buying the company for $1.2 billion with what might be the saddest corporate statement we have ever seen: “We are very passionate about the on-the-go snack.” Sir. They’re all two-bite brownies and on-the-go snacks if you want it bad enough.
The acquisition of Trunk Club hasn’t worked out excellent for Nordstrom — what with the 250 layoffs and $197 million write-down — but the latest news might actually be good for the former startup. Nordstrom is shutting the standalone Trunk Club locations in favor of bringing the styling services into existing Nordstrom locations. No word on whether it’ll lead to layoffs, but it does seem like the kind of move Nordstrom should have made on day one.
JourneyCare is cutting jobs. The Glenview-based nonprofit providing care to critically ill patients is planning to lay off 150 people and stop providing home healthcare visits, instead focusing on its hospice and in-house care. That’s bad news for the employees, but also for all the older folks hoping to gracefully age in place.
If only there was an option for a more humane healthcare system wow what could it be?
Job with badass potential
Senior News Editor at Block Club Chicago
Work: Assign and edit breaking neighborhood news, supervise reporters, and occasionally crank out a story on deadline. There are many deeply experienced journalists on the market right now, and more to come unfortunately, so it would feel like a win to see Block Club land that talent.
Downsides: We’re probably not talking Tribune salaries. But this nonprofit newsroom and your city kinda need you.
Perks: Tap the link above for smiling faces! Who couldn’t use some of that?
A few other jobs we’re curious about …
Reporting Internship at WBEZ (paid)
Parenthetical ours. Trying to bring all the journalism positivity today yes we are.
Vice President of Corporate Communications at Green Thumb Industries
Build corporate and internal comms at a cannabis CPG company whose intranet is called ShareJoint. Heh heh.
Public Relations Coordinator at the Field Museum
Help position the institution as a scientific leader and not just fun for field trips. Shakes fist at Sue.
Director of Community Ventures at Old Town School of Folk Music
Bring programs to community partners and Chicago Public Schools, mostly serving the South and West sides. All of us could use more access to protest songs.
Inspiration of the week
Carmen Maria Machado is an author who has not incidentally written elegant stories about the patriarchy, sexual assault and domestic abuse. So that’s the inspiration — even those of us most capable of sitting in and writing up this sinking feeling can’t do it anymore.
We’re just tired of always being better, getting nothing and getting over it. We will get over it, we will get behind the candidate who doesn’t treat women’s bodies as a set piece to comment on, loom over and smell. And fuck it, we will get behind a candidate who does if that’s the only way we can get fewer kids in cages.
It’s just hard to constantly lose the negotiations on who’s allowed to matter.
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