Even as party leaders warned delegates not to lose sight of the November election, their fight with Rauner at the statehouse was front-and-center. That was a function of both the political nature of the gathering, and the topic of the day: Organized labor. Rauner has spent the past year-and-a-half trying to chip away at the influence of Illinois labor unions, with Democrats resisting in support of their union allies.
Delegates heard from labor leaders, who preached party unity ahead of the official nomination of Clinton this week, but also bashed Rauner for his anti-union efforts. As the breakfast meeting concluded, delegates were shown a promotional video featuring a number of labor leaders linking Rauner and Trump and declaring that there is “no difference between” the two Republican businessmen-turned-politicians.
The video was produced by the Chicago Federation of Labor.
