Urlacher comes to Joliet, protesters object

Former Bear appears for council candidate Clement; protest links linebacker to labor and racial issues

Former Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher was in Joliet for a City Council candidate’s fundraiser Sunday as a group of warehouse workers protested his presence.

Urlacher helped raise money for Joe Clement, a former Joliet police officer running for council in the April 6 election. The event also raised money for local food banks.

Urlacher said he was unaware of the protest that was being staged about a half-mile down the road from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 176 union hall at 1100 the Interstate 55 Northeast Frontage Road.

“I’m here to support Joe,” said Urlacher, who now lives in Arizona. “I came here to see my family, and this coincided with that.”

Urlacher knows Clement because his wife and Clement’s sister, who arranged the appearance, are friends.

Urlacher met with fans and Clement supporters, signed jerseys and took photos with people who came to the fundraiser, which cost $54 a ticket, a price based on Urlacher’s jersey number.

Meanwhile about a dozen people staged a protest organized by Warehouse Workers for Justice.

The protest was based in part on Urlacher’s social media post last year mocking NBA players who staged a walkout after the police-involved shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, that left a black man paralyzed. It also was linked to the ongoing controversy over the NorthPoint project in Joliet.

“How can you have Brian Urlacher at a union hall right now?” Roberto Clack said into a megaphone. “It’s wrong for the union movement. It’s wrong for the Black Lives Matter movement.”

Clack said the Urlacher post sent a message that “people shouldn’t speak out for racial justice” and take labor action for the cause.

He linked the Urlacher event to the ongoing controversy over the NorthPoint project because of IBEW Local 176 support for the project and the union’s endorsement of Clement.

“I think it’s reflective of a larger problem with the building trades [unions] and how they go about their business, with the rest of the community,” Clack said.

The city typically made agreements with developers that building trades unions will build their warehouses. But Warehouse Workers for Justice, which opposes the NorthPoint project, contends there is little support for improving working conditions inside the warehouses.

One of the protesters was Charles Lovett Jr. of Joliet, who said he’s been a temporary worker at area warehouses for 10 years without being hired on a permanent basis.

“I’ve worked at warehouses since I’ve been out of high school,” Lovett said.

At the union hall, Urlacher and Clement would not comment on the linebacker’s social media message about the Kenosha incident.

Clement rejected any link between the fundraiser and the NorthPoint project.

“This has nothing to do with NorthPoint or CenterPoint or any other point,” he said, and described Urlacher as being “very gracious” at the event.

An auction of autographed footballs raised $3,600 that will be distributed to food banks.

“I’m just happy that he came to Joliet,” Clement said. “My family, my friends and myself were ecstatic.”