By Alex Oliveira
Employees at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago are unionizing over their working conditions, claiming benefits have been cut and workloads are increasing just four months after the center opened in June.
Workers circulated a letter to staff Wednesday announcing their intent to unionize, complaining about “increasing” workloads and “vague responses” from administrators to a list of complaints they’d raised, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Some of the complaints suggested the $900 million presidential center — often maligned for resembling the Star Wars Death Star or a huge trash bin — could already be facing financial trouble.
They included the center’s recent halting of raises and promotions, an increase in their healthcare costs and a reduction of paid time off — all of which the letter said have led to a “high turnover rate” and exiting employees “taking with them their institutional knowledge and expertise.”
Just how vital those four months of “institutional knowledge” was remains unclear, but the workers included an ace-in-the-hole in their pitch: President Obama’s own glowing words endorsing unions in 2016.
“If I were looking for a good job that lets me build some security for my family, I’d join a union. If I saw a problem in my workplace, I’d organize my coworkers to do something about it,” the letter quoted Obama.
The Obama Foundation, which financed construction of the library, had $1.1 million in assets last year — but revenue plunged 25% from $210 million in 2024 to $159 million in 2025, according to tax documents.