Pritzker takes victory lap in DC
Wednesday, Apr 10, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* JB Pritzker was the only governor to speak at the national building trades union convention yesterday…
“When we were at this conference a year ago, Illinois had the most anti-union governor in the nation,” Pritzker said. The audience booed each time Pritzker said Rauner’s name. Pritzker paused, with relish, at each round of boos. […]
Rauner “was hell bent,” Pritzker said, on eliminating project labor agreements, pushing local right-to-work zones and “destroying” prevailing wage agreements while “stacking the Illinois Department of Labor with his anti-union cronies allied with the Koch Brothers,” a reference to the anti-union drives bankrolled by the billionaire brothers. […]
Pritzker told the group about actions he did from day one as governor: signing orders restoring project labor and prevailing wage agreements and dealing with wage theft and day-labor exploitation. He also signed a law raising the Illinois minimum wage to $15-an-hour by 2025.
“I want to be clear. When it comes to fighting for Illinois workers, we are just getting started,” said Pritzker.
Thoughts?
- PublicServant - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 10:49 am:
===I want to be clear. When it comes to fighting for Illinois workers, we are just getting started===
Then quit shorting their pensions.
- Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 10:57 am:
Right on, JB. Rauner is hopefully the last major politician in the region to push the anti-union multimillionaire and billionaire agenda. We don’t need RTWFL in any form, or local repeal of prevailing wage and local stripping of collective bargaining rights. Rauner caused so much damage for nothing by his insistence on “local control.”
Incomes have by far grown the most for the 1% in Illinois over the last three decades, per a study. During all that time the wealthiest have paid a low state income tax. Yet to listen to the Raunerites, it’s horrible here. Such phoniness, but purposely done, so working stiffs can be terrified for the super-rich.
- Iggy - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 10:59 am:
fighting for the Illinois worker. lol
more like fighting for an all automated fastfood experience. and I’m all for that.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 11:04 am:
Still waiting for the price tag to doing the exact opposite of what Rauner was trying to do and bragging about it? How much will this affect the budget? How will this be paid for?
- Old Illini - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 11:06 am:
Pritzker was speaking to the Building Trades convention, not the teachers or SEIU convention. There are no pensions involved with the trades.
- Honeybear - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 11:12 am:
Great news
You could put the illegally withheld and contractually owed backpay for state workers step wages
On the front burner.
Lead by showing Illinois now
Pays it’s bills
Honors it’s contracts
Obeys the judgment of the courts
Don’t make union and non union members
wait
another 6 years like last time.
Do folks here remember
just 2 months ago
giving to a GoFundme page
for a union sister
who had a financial need?
That whole thing started because
she needed that backpay to come through.
She was robbed
by Rauner
Well Gov. Pritzker
Mr. Union friendly Governor
I don’t see that backpay in your budget book
I don’t see your Legislative affairs person talking to the GA
I don’t see you making plans to
make it right
Enjoy your Union Victory Lab
in DC
Here at home
The Rank and File state workers
are giving you
serious
side eye
And putting us on our correct step
was not a gift
It was legally obligated
the second you went back to the bargaining table.
At that moment
you validated the current contract
we are under till a new one is signed
meaning
You had to put us back on our proper step
and you also
Have to pay us those back wages.
I pulled hard for you Governor
I did my best for you with my union
I did my best for you canvassing/organizing
I can look you in the eye and say that.
But if you’re gonna
Walk the walk
and talk the talk
Do it here
Where you can look me in the eye
not DC
Where perfidy
is served chilled before the salad course.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 11:14 am:
–more like fighting for an all automated fastfood experience. and I’m all for that.–
–Still waiting for the price tag to doing the exact opposite of what Rauner was trying to do and bragging about it? How much will this affect the budget? How will this be paid for?–
Pavlov’s Bell can provoke a wide range of conditioned response incoherence.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 11:16 am:
How much is this going to cost?
@wordslinger: “Pavlov’s Bell”
So the question has absolutely no relevance in your estimation?
- Anon - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 11:19 am:
So, I guess this means we’ll see cost of living adjustments that keep up with inflation in his contracts with public sector employees and prompt payment of the funds illegally withheld from employee pay?
Regardless, he’s a great improvement for the State but now he gets to be the change he campaigned for and live up to his rhetoric.
- Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 11:19 am:
McDonald’s recently announced it will no longer fight against the $15/hour minimum wage.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/garyocchiogrosso/2019/04/04/mcdonalds-abandons-its-fight-against-15-minimum-wage/amp/
- Lucky Pierre - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 11:21 am:
I want to be clear when it come to taxing Illinois residents and driving the debt up further we’re just getting started
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 11:25 am:
–So the question has absolutely no relevance in your estimation?–
Only because it has no substance or context, i.e., how much is what going to cost whom?
Read your original post — do you think you’re clear and precise as to what you’re talking about? Or is it just a knee-jerk tantrum?
- Honeybear - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 11:27 am:
Sorry, that was angry.
I needed to write that.
I so want you to be a labor friendly Governor.
I worry that you are
forming a wedge between the trades and the public sector unions.
It’s what Rauner should have done.
It’s what I fear you might do.
Honor all labor.
Dispel that fear
Please, please please
Don’t shaft workers
loyal workers
like me, Honeybear
a care professional
caring for our fellow Illinoisans
We were robbed
You didn’t do it
but you have the power
to make sure the GA
makes it right.
I still believe in you.
But we’re running out of time
before a lot of my public union folks
walk away
from their support of you.
don’t make
“He’s just like every other politician”
a reality
Four times you took my hand
looked me in the eye
and
WE
pledged mutual support
to each other.
Don’t turn your back on the rank and file.
Please
JB
please don’t
- Honeybear - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 11:43 am:
Lucky Pierre
I believe it was between 400-500 million
was Stolen, illegally withheld
Proven in court.
So you’re a lawyer right?
Now you’re advocating that we don’t
follow the law?
Honor legal employment contracts?
Obey the judgment of the courts?
Seriously
It was your fantasy governor
Bruce Vincent Rauner
Who committed the crime
He was like the restaurant owner-who didn’t pay the tips.
He was like the construction contractor- who didn’t pay the overtime hours.
He was like the Trump- stiffing everybody
Do you follow the rule of law sir?
Do you obey the judgment of the courts?
If not, I suggest you reexamine
your choice of profession.
- Blue Dog Dem - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 11:43 am:
Anyone want to wager that union membership will be lower in Illinois four years from now? Why? Because union members,in large part dont care about purchasing union built goods or services.
- Skeptic - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 11:55 am:
“Still waiting for the price tag to doing the exact opposite of what Rauner was trying to do”
You say that as if what Rauner was trying to do was a good thing.
- Captain Obvious - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 11:57 am:
Not sure a victory lap on the minimum wage is justified. Every other state that has done so has lost tens of thousands of jobs as a direct result. Many companies have accelerated the use of automation to eliminate minimum wage jobs as well.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 12:04 pm:
===how much is what going to cost whom?===
I asked a simple question. Who is going to pay for it? Spare me the drama if you cannot answer the question or could care less about it. I can put up with constructive criticism. Trolling is another matter.
- Lucky Pierre - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 12:05 pm:
Watch our border states continue to grow union and non union jobs faster than “labor friendly” Illinois
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 12:14 pm:
–McDonald’s won’t fight against it, they will automate more…–
Good call, Nostradamus.
Automation and fewer human beings have been the fast food business model forever.
- Nobody Sent - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 12:14 pm:
Lets just hope that bowing to the unions does not influence important appointments where union bias has no place (like the ICC) — I know - too much to hope for
- City Zen - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 12:15 pm:
==Then quit shorting their pensions.==
He’s not shorting the trade unions’ pensions. Take a look at the pension costs on the prevailing wages table over the years.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 12:26 pm:
–I asked a simple question. Who is going to pay for it?–
LOL, here’s some “constructive criticism”: You have given no clue as to what you’re talking about. What is “it” that you’re referring to?
- Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 12:26 pm:
“Watch our border states continue to grow union and non union jobs faster than “labor friendly” Illinois”
Those are low-income states. We don’t need to emulate those. California, for example, has had job gains in 11 out of the last 12 months. Minnesota has a low unemployment rate and is a higher-income state. Massachusetts has nearly everyone covered by health insurance and has a low unemployment rate. So any argument that we have to bust unions for job growth is pure bunk.
- Flat Bed Ford - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 12:37 pm:
=Pritzker takes victory lap in DC=
It measured 4.7 on the Richter scale.
- ike - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 1:03 pm:
“Trolling is another matter”
Louis, are you talking about yourself?
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 1:05 pm:
==“Still waiting for the price tag to doing the exact opposite of what Rauner was trying to do”
You say that as if what Rauner was trying to do was a good thing.==
Not only that, but Louis says this as if Rauner failing at “what he tried to do” was cheap. The results of Rauner’s actions (refusing to sign budgets) ended with Illinois spending more taxpayer money than it would have if he’d signed the darned budgets in the first place. Our debt ballooned - bigly - under Rauner. He and the others don’t mention that, for some reason.
But hey at least flat bed ford is here to make fat people jokes. So, you know, we got that to look forward to.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 1:16 pm:
–The “it” that is subject to this thread?–
–Pritzker takes victory lap in DC–
LOL, thanks for clearing that up, Louis.
Curious — what’s your ballpark take on what “it” costs?
- SW - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 1:18 pm:
Pritzker has already abandoned the state worker. Once he saw what it would cost to give cost of living adjustments and fund pensions he bolted. The average State Democratic politician believes we have no options. I am not sure I will see a cost of living adjustment until after I retire.
- Honeybear - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 1:36 pm:
SW- I’m not seeing that.
I get that he’s got hard choices
But my point is that paying the back pay
Is not a choice
It’s a legal requirement now.
And I don’t see that it’s being addressed
I see it being avoided.
By all those in power.
It makes me angry that backroom deals
had to happen for silence
on this issue.
I’ll give you 27,944 reasons why I’m not staying quiet.
I wonder if I could sue the state as an individual?
Seriously,
I don’t know the answer to that.
- Liandro - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 1:40 pm:
@Louis: your questions were fine and easily understood. The answer to your second question (so far): the costs will be absorbed by consumers/employees or failed businesses (minimum wage), and by local taxpayers (for all those other unfunded mandates he’s crowing about).
The results will be higher inflation, fewer jobs for young people, and local tax increases–while doing little to nothing to solve Springfield’s key challenges. Victory!
- Honeybear - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 1:48 pm:
-The results will be higher inflation-
You seriously said that. I am so dying laughing.
You forgot to mention locusts.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 1:54 pm:
–@Louis: your questions were fine and easily understood.–
Great minds, and all that….
- Skeptic - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 2:14 pm:
“The results will be higher inflation,” Inflation is when there are more dollars in the market than goods. You know what else puts more dollars on the market? Tax cuts.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 2:48 pm:
Word, if you are going to quote me, quote my entire sentence with your response.
You seem to get snarkier the older you get. Sorry your Cubs are struggling.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 2:51 pm:
–Word, if you are going to quote me, quote my entire sentence with your response.–
You’re posting as “anonymous.” Should I just guess?
- Mama - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 4:22 pm:
Honey Bear, I’m confused. I thought the state workers already got their back-pay.
- Honeybear - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 4:55 pm:
Mama, no they got backpay from the 2011 Quinn lawsuit six years later.
Rauner illegally froze our wages in 2015. We went to court and won. When Pritzker first took office he put us on our proper wage “step” but says that the legislature must appropriate the money to pay us for the theft. I am owed 27,944 dollars.
- Honeybear - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 4:58 pm:
Thus it is hypocritical for him to talk about stopping wage theft when he has not made tens of thousands of state workers whole.
- Anon - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 5:05 pm:
Then maybe ole J.B. can explain why the Rauner double exempts at the Department of Labor are still employed. House cleaning is long overdue. If ole J.B. is gonna talk the talk then walk the walk, call off the dogs off on all union decertification petitions.
- MaryLouise - Wednesday, Apr 10, 19 @ 5:40 pm:
Well, even if you make $250,000 a year joint income and have a family or helping grandchildren, it doesn’t make you rich. This is outrageous to put a tax burden on those making a penny above $250,000 a year. They are not millionaires, nor billionaires. Did you stop to think that these are regular people, too? And they didn’t take toilets out of their homes to get a tax break! More of the same. Thank you Illinois!!!
- Question More - Thursday, Apr 11, 19 @ 4:32 am:
Prediction: If AFSCME fails to negotiate a fair contract, many Union Members will opt-out of paying dues.
- Go Hard - Thursday, Apr 11, 19 @ 8:30 am:
@Question More
If I don’t get my backpay I’ll quit paying dues, save $60 a month, and will be preaching for everyone else to do the same.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Apr 11, 19 @ 12:48 pm:
===it doesn’t make you rich===
No, but it certainly makes you upper-income.
===This is outrageous to put a tax burden on those making a penny above $250,000 a year===
The increased tax is only on income above $250K a year, not all of it.
This is not Facebook. Stop arguing like you’re there or leave.