Auditions for the popular reality show “America’s Next Top Model” were scheduled to be held at the Congress Plaza Hotel on Sept. 6, but were moved just days before the auditions after the show’s producers learned they would have to cross a union picket line.

Workers from the Congress Plaza Hotel, 520 S. Michigan Ave., have been on strike for more than five years. The union representing the strikers, Unite Here Local 1, promised a larger-than-usual picket line and planned to hand out mock “Tyra Mail” to auditioners that would ask them not to cross the picket line, said Annemarie Strassel, communications coordinator for the union.

The union organizers found out about the planned auditions for the hit CW show on Sept. 2 after a worker heard an announcement on the radio about it, Strassel said.

“We reached out to members of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists who put us in touch with folks who work with them out in Los Angeles,” Strassel said. “We made phone calls to the executive producers of the show and we called Cover Girl, the major sponsor of ‘America’s Next Top Model.'”

The union announced a picket and protest outside the hotel. The strikers planned to carry picket signs with special slogans like “America’s Next Top Strikebreaker?,” “Where is Tyra’s Inner Beauty?” and “Who Wants a Model Covered in SCABS,” according to the advisory.

On Sept. 4, The CW announced the auditions would be relocated to the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, 2233 S. Martin Luther King Drive, a union hotel.

Unite Here views The CW’s decision not to cross their picket line as a victory for the union and the hotel workers it represents, according to Strassel. The Congress Plaza Hotel lost business because of pressure from the labor movement and the producer’s decision to honor the strike.

“We were very, very excited and pleased that [the relocation] actually happened, especially in such a tight timeframe,” Strassel said.

Paul McGuire, spokesperson for The CW, confirmed that the auditions were moved due to the ongoing strike. He also said the network did not know about the situation when the Congress Plaza Hotel was originally chosen to host the event.

Officials speaking on behalf of the Congress Plaza Hotel expressed dissatisfaction with the cancellation by The CW and with the strike in general.

“We are not happy about it but this is just further insight into the conduct of this particular union,” said Peter Andjelkovich, attorney and chief negotiator for the Congress Plaza Hotel.

The strike, which seems to have no end in sight, originally started in June 2003 when hotel workers walked out after the hotel froze wages and benefits, according to Unite Here. It is now the longest active strike in the country.

“[The strike] doesn’t do anybody any good,” Andjelkovich said. “It doesn’t help the workers, it doesn’t help the union and it doesn’t help the hotel. “

As long as there are workers who want to stand up for better wages and benefits and are willing to be out on the picket line, Unite Here will continue to support them, Strassel said.

“No one wants to be on strike for five years, but workers at the Congress Hotel have done that because they are looking to maintain the standard for hotel work across the city,” Strassel said. “We have come to the table numerous times and the Congress hotel has never moved, not even a penny, on wage proposals or on health care … since the negotiations began.”

There are still periodic negotiations between the hotel and the union, Andjelkovich said, but he said ending the strike is up to the union.

“We didn’t push them out on the street-they walked out,” Andjelkovich said.

In the end, everything worked out for Chicago’s America’s Next Top Model prospective contestants and producers at The CW, though.

“The auditions were successful and beside that there is nothing else to add,” McGuire said.

Andjelkovich said every customer is important to the hotel and if the show had held the auditions there they would have received very good service.

“It is actually [The] CW’s loss,” Andjelkovich said. “I don’t know [what other hotel] they ended up going to but there could not have been as good of service as the Congress Plaza Hotel would have provided.”