“When the Illinois legislature
audaciously looted the retirement savings of the state’s public employees, many
lawmakers dissented because the bill was clearly unconstitutional and immoral.
“But a smaller group voted ‘no’
because they felt the cuts weren’t deep enough. They were taking their cues
from the leading Republican candidate for governor, Bruce Rauner, who wants to
eliminate defined benefit pension plans and force public employees into
401(k)-style plans, left to the vagaries of the stock market.
“How did someone who was a political
unknown until recently gain such influence? It’s easy if you’ve got millions of
your own money to spend promoting yourself. Rauner has been ‘introducing’
himself to voters in phony, folksy TV ads seeking to disguise his status as a
venture capitalist who made a good part of his immense fortune feeding off of
those very public pension funds he purports to despise.
“Rauner says he’s an ‘outsider’ to
public service, but he’s spent decades soliciting public pension fund dollars
for his hedge funds to invest for a handsome fee. A few years ago, he received
millions in Pennsylvania pension dollars to invest – after a $300,000 campaign
contribution to that state’s Democratic governor.
“Here in Illinois, a company owned by
Rauner paid a member of the Teachers’ Retirement System Board more than $25,000
a month. Not coincidentally, his firm was selected to handle TRS pension dollars.
The TRS member, Stuart Levine, is now doing time in federal prison for public
malfeasance.
“Despite, or perhaps because of, his
sordid record of ‘paying to play,’ Rauner is attempting to pedal a large load
of hooey about ‘union bosses’ being in ‘control’ in Springfield.
“One only has to look at the passage
of pension-slashing SB 1, which legislators enacted in violation of the state’s
constitution and over the vocal opposition of thousands of union members, to
know who’s really calling the shots in Springfield. AFSCME and other public
sector unions are important lobbying forces at the state capitol, but our
influence (and financial contributions) can’t begin to compare to that of the
corporate elite Bruce Rauner represents.
“Of course, Rauner’s real target
isn’t a handful of union leaders, but the hundreds of thousands of union
members whose pay, pensions and workplace rights he wants to diminish.
“He’s out to wipe out unions in the
public sector because in his view they’ve raised the salaries of public workers
too high. It’s more than ironic that a man who reported $52 million in income
in 2012 claims employees who earn their relatively modest salaries through hard
work are overly compensated.
“His claim that AFSCME’s contracts
with the state are the result of campaign contributions to the governors with
whom we negotiated is a flat-out falsehood. Yes, we’ve negotiated contracts
with the past five governors of Illinois that improved the standard of living
of union members. But in most of those cases the union did not even endorse
them in their runs for office. And, even when we did, the agreements often were
only won after intensive member mobilizations all across the state.
“In Rauner’s world, the truth doesn’t
matter – but money most certainly does. His campaign is about whether the big
money can sell the big lie.
“The regular guy Rauner plays on TV
couldn’t be more divorced from who he really is. He doesn’t want voters to know
he owns nine homes and has claimed tax breaks on three, even though he’s entitled
to just one such exemption. He doesn’t want them to know that while he lives in
a fancy suburb, he falsely claimed residency in the City of Chicago, placed a
call to a top schools official, and got his daughter ‘clouted in’ to a
highly-regarded public high school.
“Rubbing elbows and scratching backs
is what Rauner has done to amass his fortune. He’s done it not only with
Republicans, but also with Democrats like Rahm Emanuel, who benefit from
Rauner’s largesse and are quick to return the favor.
“Bruce Rauner wants to be governor to
wipe out labor unions and destroy what little remains of the middle class in
our state – all while steering more money to him and his friends. He’s trying
to prey on the resentments of those who’ve already lost jobs and income –
turning their anger away from the Wall Street wolves who robbed them and onto
struggling public employees.
“We can’t let Rauner make us the
punching bag of this election season.”
—Henry Bayer, executive director of AFSCME Council 31
For
this article, Click Here.
For
John Dillon’s post, Click Here.
“…Taking
basic rights away from working people is an extreme and undesirable step.
Collective bargaining, after all, is simply the right of men and women to join
together to achieve common goals like fair treatment and better working
conditions through a voice on the job. That right flows from fundamental
American freedoms like the freedom of speech and freedom of assembly…
“It’s
undeniably true that Quinn has proven a poor manager of state government. But
the blame should be placed on the qualifications and judgment of the governor
himself and the top staff he has hired, not whether certain employees saw fit
to join a union.
“The
real causes of dysfunction and disruption to state services include Quinn’s
hostility to state employees and his constant demoralizing attacks on their pay
and pensions, closures and layoffs that destroy jobs and rob agencies of the
staff and resources they need to meet their missions and the excessive
overtime, out-of-control caseloads and dangerous working conditions that
result.
“…Quinn
has refused for 18 months to pay wage increases earned by and owed to 30,000
state workers, despite court and arbitrator’s orders to do so. And in November,
Quinn became the first Illinois governor ever to terminate a union contract.
After all that, why would anyone take Pat Quinn at his word?”
For
the entire article, Click Here.
—Henry Bayer, executive director of AFSCME Council 31
Let’s not forget that Governor Quinn also
signed into law Senate Bill 1 eight months ago; moreover, two
equally objectionable choices could have been avoided with union support of a candidate who believes in the rights and benefits of working-class people.
"Unions,
organizations formerly steeped in the doctrine of class struggle and filled
with those who sought broad social and political rights for the working class,
have been transformed into domesticated partners of the capitalist class. They
have been reduced to simple bartering tools. The social demands of unions early
in the twentieth century that gave the working class weekends off, the right to
strike, the eight-hour day, and Social Security have been abandoned” (Chris
Hedges).
So --which of these two individuals (Quinn vs Rauner) is the "least of the two evils?" It appears that there are going to be many state employees who will not be voting for either Quinn or Rauner. Regardless who wins, can we expect business as usual in Springfield since it is Madigan who is calling the shots?
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