Labor and management, along with industry, academic and political dignitaries, will collaborate in Chicago, October 19-21, in a wide-ranging conference aimed at divining the plumbing industry's future, and developing a strategic plan for addressing change. The "Plumbing Industry Working Conference 2000" is being sponsored by the Chicagoland Plumbing Council, an industry fund supported by UA Plumbers Local 130 and its signatory contractors, and the Chicago Labor Education Program of the University of Illinois-Chicago.
UA 130 is one of the nation's largest plumbing unions, numbering nearly 5,000 members who work for more than 400 signatory contractors. Business manager Gerald Sullivan is one of the city's most influential labor leaders, and has gotten commitments from Illinois Gov. George Ryan and Mayor Richard M. Daley to participate as speakers at the conference, as well as other major public officials who had been contacted but not yet committed as of press time.