Explaining Rauner’s hostiity toward unions
Wednesday, Feb 18, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* A commenter pointed to this 2014 statement yesterday by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle as an explanation for why Gov. Bruce Rauner is so hostile to unions. He’s always been hostile to unions…
[Preckwinkle] told a reporter that long before Rauner was a gubernatorial candidate, she had interviewed him for an opening on the board of the county health system, and was turned off by him then.
“First of all, he was very arrogant. He was a know-it-all,” Preckwinkle said.
“Second, he made claim to know about health care, and when I said, ‘What do you know?’ he said, ‘You know I own this health care company,’ and we’ve seen what that’s about. And then he went on a rant against public employee unions when I asked where the challenges were. I said, ‘You understand that almost all our workforce is unionized? How are you going to be an effective board member if that’s your attitude?’
- Gb20 - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 9:37 am:
For some people, paying workers really gets in the way of the profit their money should be earning.
- Frenchie Mendoza - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 9:38 am:
Actually, the more interesting — and more insightful — quote comes later in the article. Preckwinkle makes the assessment that Rauner is “not a good person.”
I’d wager Preckwinkle might add “duplicitous” to her assessment now — nearly five months after the article referenced was written.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 9:38 am:
For Toni Preckwinkle to call somebody an arrogant, know-it-all is really saying something.
- Joan P. - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 9:39 am:
That doesn’t actually explain WHY he’s opposed to unions, just that it’s a long-standing, and clearly strongly held, opinion.
Maybe his mother was scared by a giant inflatable rat when she was pregnant with him?
- AC - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 9:41 am:
Irrational hostility toward unions is his biggest weakness, seeing as he is (and was) dependent on a unionized workforce to achieve his goals.
- AnonymousOne - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 9:41 am:
He doesn’t need a good attitude. He owns stuff.
- Illini97 - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 9:44 am:
Agreeing with Joan. This gives credence to the idea that he’s always felt this way about public unions. It still doesn’t give insight to WHY he feels that way or what on Earth his endgame is with the current stunts he’s pulling.
- William j Kelly - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 9:45 am:
Rahm must be furious with preckwinkle for saying these things about rauner. Anyone who knows anything about Illinois politics knows Rahm and rauner are like one person.
- ABC Lawyer - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 9:48 am:
Toni knows a lot about Unions thanks to the deals Todd and her have cut with them over the years.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 9:48 am:
Not a very good person, ouch that really hurts
- Team Sleep - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 9:50 am:
Perhaps the easiest explanation is the best explanation. Maybe he just does not like public employee unions.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 9:51 am:
That’s a pretty strong comment from the person who did a great job of cleaning up county government. And with little fan fare or help
- Rod - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 9:52 am:
Mr Rauner deeply believes in merit based pay based on the performance of employees as measured by a system established by management. Unions believe at best in a limited performance based component to pay and standardized wage increases based on seniority to a large degree. Governor Rauner’s world outlook is radically in opposition to those of unions.
- chi - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 9:56 am:
Mr. Rauner deeply believes in paying people as little as possible. Unions don’t.
There, fixed it for you.
- Judgment Day - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 9:56 am:
Toni Preckwinkle will need support from Bruce Rauner before Bruce Rauner will need support from Toni Preckwinkle.
Cook County financials (especially retirement related costs) are not good. They have done a fantastic job of flying under the radar to avoid the type of hits the State of Illinois has taken, but you can only do that for so long.
Wait for it.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:00 am:
Right you are JD, now that the post-Stroger low-hanging fruit problems are dealt with, she needs to make the tough decisions. It’ll be an interesting year in Cook County. It’s not a matter of if they hike revenue sources, just which ones and by how much. And judging by all of the unhappy AFSCME workers who showed up at the last County Board meeting, it looks like she might be having her own union issues.
- Emily Booth - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:01 am:
Rauner resents unions because they have power.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:05 am:
Let’s be blunt. Unions have always meant less profit for the 1%.
John D. Rockefeller sent in goon squads to beat up union organizers. Until unions, there was no 40 hour work week, no paid vacation, no health care, and no pensions. The 1% and Republican party would like to return to those days.
Say what you will, but the lessening of union power in the U.S. (a favorite campaign of Ronald Reagan) seriously hurt the middle class and helped the 1%. That’s the lie of trickle down economics.
Governor Rauner benefits from union employees’ skills and experience but their demands are offensive to him.
- chi - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:07 am:
“First you get the money. Then you get the power.”
Rauner thought Tony Montana was right. He can’t abide by a world that works any other way.
- Bobby sox - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:08 am:
Explaining why? Worst header ever.
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:10 am:
He is anti-union because he doesn’t understand their value to our communities. So, this means he doesn’t understand our communities either.
So, when he proposed shaking up Springfield during his campaign he wasn’t really telling us why he personally wanted to shake up Springfield. It wasn’t about helping us, it was to change us and since we didn’t see a need to be changed, he decided not to tell us during the campaign what he really meant. Rauner wanted to be our governor because after seeing us electing Ryan, Blagojevich and Quinn, he thought Illinois didn’t know what it was doing.
Governors need to be humble and respectful. They needed to have discovered during their campaigns for office that each voter had a legitimate reason to voting they way they do. Rauner isn’t alone in writing off voters as mindless lemmings. Every election loser refuses to believe in democracy when they lose an election.
He might like our clothes, enjoys a sensible watch, and drive a worn out imported van, but we seem to be discovering that our new governor values his wine club, his mansions and his wealth beyond their true value.
Elected officials who demonize parts of our social structure because they don’t value them are not really interested in governing. They are interested in controlling and changing our social structures to prove to themselves that they really are the best and the brightest and don’t need us. We are just supposed to be cowed into voting for them against our own best interests.
Rauner running for governor is turning out to be like the McDonalds franchisee who decided to buy them because he hated hamburgers and didn’t care if the customers wanted them. Instead he wanted everyone to eat what he liked to eat, so to prove to everyone, especially himself, that he is right - he decided to force his opinion upon everyone. How many times had Rauner gotten away with this basic business failure of not respecting his customers?
Governor Rauner should have ran for governor where his ideas would have found a better market.
Geez Illinois, we can’t catch a break can we?
- AnonymousOne - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:10 am:
=Rauner believes in paying people as little as possible=
So he and those like him can have more, more, more. How much does he need? What is enough? Maybe a 10th, 11th house? But we are absolutely not in a class war. I know some hate those words, but we can call it something else……wealth engorgement, working people wage drain, selfishness, whatever.
- MrJM - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:12 am:
“First of all, he was very arrogant. He was a know-it-all,” Preckwinkle said.
“Second, he made claim to know about [governing the state], and when I said, ‘What do you know?’ he said, ‘You know I own [the Illinois Republican Party],’ and we’ve seen what that’s about. And then he went on a rant against public employee unions when I asked where the challenges were. I said, ‘You understand that almost all our workforce is unionized? How are you going to be an effective [governor] if that’s your attitude?’”
– MrJM
- AnonymousOne - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:18 am:
Fixation on unions and rants. Does he sound unbalanced?
- haverford - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:22 am:
Well said, VanillaMan
- ZC - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:24 am:
Dear Bruce Rauner,
When you’re running against the Democrats in Springfield and you’ve lost VanillaMan, you have a problem.
- Wordslinger - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:25 am:
Interesting to hear Rauner claim that he knew how his health care company worked. I thought he was all Sgt. Schultz on that.
APS Healthcare got stung for defrauding Medicaid down in Georgia. Google Rauner, Georgia and Medicaid fraud to read all about it.
What did the union do, interfere with the scam?
- ChiTown Seven - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:33 am:
Rauner’s dislike of unions is typical of those who never had to do an honest day’s work for an honest day’s wage. Think about it: if you’re born, bred, and schooled on the northshore; never ride the CTA; send your kids to the most expensive schools; never had to work after school to buy your gym clothes, never had to save money for gifts from Santa. . . . If you’ve never seen anyone stretch ground beef with bread-crumbs for the family dinner, never knew anyone who shopped at Goodwill, never met anyone who bought a used refrigerator, never had to change the oil in your car, never had to replace your car’s spark plugs, never had to shovel snow out of your driveway, never heard your parents discussing over dinner how they could scrimp together enough money for a family vacation. . . . If this is the privileged world that you live in, you simply have no idea as to why unions are needed. Instead, you buy into a host of ignorant opinions that pervade the northshore, such as (1) unions are corrupt and unecessary; (2) Chicago teachers are lazy and stupid; and (3)low-income people deserve what they get.
That explains why people like Rauner and Rahm are so ignorant about the history and need for unions. As to why they hate unions so much? I think it’s because they are both spoiled rich kids who always got everything they wanted, even as adults — and for the first time in their lives, someone is telling them “No.”
nside a Goodwill,
- Upton Sinclair's Ghost - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:35 am:
To AnonymousOne 10:10 = But we are absolutely not in a class war. I know some hate those words, but we can call it something else…=
You can put lipstick on a pig but at the end of the day, it’s still a pig.
- walker - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:43 am:
Got it. Rauner hates unions because they got in the way of his flipping businesses for maximum profits.
Still, his flaunting this bias so early as Governor, is a dance for the national stage.
- Norseman - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:53 am:
I hate being so right about how bad this guy was going to be. I was so hoping that he was just feeding red meat to the neanderthals and when elected turn toward working with folks to improve things.
- Frenchie Mendoza - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:54 am:
Spelling error in title: “hostiity”
- Ducky LaMoore - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:55 am:
Those pesky unions, with their durned retirement plans, healthcare plans, fringe benefits. Welfare capitalism it be, I say. Durn it, if I want to pay poverty wages and somebody wants to work for em, it should be allowed. Laissez Faire! Society be durned!
- walker - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 10:56 am:
Rich: “hostiity” in header? Then you can delete this comment.
- crazybleedingheart - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 11:03 am:
Gee, if *I* struck out during a job interview and the person who refused to hire me told the newspaper a very specific and logical reason why I was rejected, I’m not so sure I’d have started out my next gig by doubling down on it.
Strongly held opinion my eye. What a special snowflake this man believes himself to be.
- Demoralized - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 11:16 am:
He’s hostile to unions because they prevent him from treating employees however he wants to treat them. He’s shown that he has no problem destroying people.
- Mitch59 - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 11:25 am:
Still can’t believe this guy got elected!
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 11:59 am:
I wouldn’t say Toni Preckwinkle is an arrogant know-it-all. I would say she doesn’t suffer fools gladly.
- Anontwo - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 12:07 pm:
I would say Rauner is nothing but a bully and we are stuck with him for four years!
- JoanP - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 12:42 pm:
“Mr. Rauner deeply believes in paying people as little as possible.”
Except for his CFO, who will get as much in a month as many public employees get in a year.
- County Worker - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 12:52 pm:
Say what you want about Prekwinkle , but cook county is in pretty good shape now under her leadership.
She is fortunate to have excellent help like John Fritchey to rely on for advice . We could use more like him at the county board..
- Left Leaner - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 1:12 pm:
Looks like Commissioner Fritchey has joined the conversation.
- Ducky LaMoore - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 1:12 pm:
@JoanP
The people that actually get paid, don’t have to do anything. If you perform work, it is obvious that you are not smart enough to do nothing.
- My take ... - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 1:19 pm:
Rauner is trying to meet similar profile of that of Gov Scott by going after unions so Rauner can edge him out for President or even VP consideration in 2016.
- Under Further Review - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 2:22 pm:
You need to separate private sector unions from public sector unions. Even the liberal lion Franklin Delano Roosevelt was on record as opposing public employee unions. Perhaps he envisioned the mess (insert “Illinois” here) when the government employer “negotiates” with government employees.
Rauner is too consumed with a quick fix. The crisis was not created in one gubernatorial term and the solution is not going to be achieved instantly.
- 19th Warder - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 2:41 pm:
Yes it does look like Fritchey was reading Capitol Fax today
- Wordslinger - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 3:04 pm:
UFR, you got your FDR wrong. It’s a lie peddled by the likes of Scott Walker.
Roosevelt wasn’t against public employee unions, but strikes by public employee unions.
If you let your fingers do the walking on fhe google, there’s a page with links to various FDR statements on the subject on the website of the FDR library.
- illini - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 5:04 pm:
VanillaMan said it well, and framed the conversation, far better than I could have.
Should be an interesting several months!!
- Not A. Rich Daley - Wednesday, Feb 18, 15 @ 7:51 pm:
I have voter remorse!
- Late to the Party - Thursday, Feb 19, 15 @ 6:39 am:
more & more I am reminded of the Michael Douglas character in the movie “Wall Street.”