Fired Seadog labor organizer claims retaliation

Less than a week after Gov. J.B. Pritzker's venture capital firm sold Seadog Cruises, a tour guide who made waves when he tried to unionize the company last fall learned he was out of a job.

Billy Dean, who worked as a docent the three previous seasons with the company, doesn't believe the explanation he was given that all the company's positions were full. Now he's accusing his bosses of illegally getting back at him in response to his very public organizing efforts, including his confrontation of Pritzker which was posted online.

On May 2, Dean filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board charging that his former employer is in violation of a law that prevents employers from failing to recall seasonal workers “because they support the union or engage in union activities.”

Pete DeMay, an organizer with the Chicago and Midwest Joint Board of Workers United, a division of SEIU that the Seadog workers wanted to join, called it a “clear case” of retaliation.

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