Problem with delete script not reading variable

Hi, I have a delete script which is storing a session variable and then I want to delete a record in the MySQL tables based on that variable. The Session var is being stored correctly, I know this from print_r. The problem is the delete isn’t working since the variable isn’t evaluating correctly.

Here is my code


<?php
ini_set("display_errors","1");
error_reporting(E_ALL);
session_start();
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","username","pw") or die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("nestle_exam") or die(mysql_error());
$_SESSION['user_id'];
$user_id='user_id'; 
print_r($_SESSION);
//DELETE QUERY TO SELECT RECORD TO DELETE BASED ON LOGIN INFO.
$query_delete = "DELETE FROM log_April2010
USING Caris_log_April2010 INNER JOIN roster_April2010
WHERE Caris_log_April2010.user_id = roster_April2010.user_id
AND roster_April2010.user_id = ".$user_id."";
echo $query_delete; //for debugging test
$result_delete = mysql_query($query_delete) or trigger_error('Query failed: ' .mysql_error());
if ($result_delete)
{
echo "Delete Successful";
}// end if
else
{
echo "Failed";
} //end else
?>

when I print out the Query is displays as :


DELETE FROM Caris_log_April2010 USING Caris_log_April2010 INNER JOIN Caris_roster_April2010 WHERE Caris_log_April2010.user_id = Caris_roster_April2010.user_id AND Caris_roster_April2010.user_id = '.user_id.'

so no record is being deleted. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.