Illinois Gov. Quinn Has a Bad Day at the State Fair

by Kyle Weidleman  |  August 24, 2012

This mobile billboard circled the fairgrounds during Governor’s Day at the Illinois State Fair.

Pat Quinn had a tough Governor's Day at the Illinois State Fair last week. More than 3,000 union members – the majority of whom were from AFSCME – showed up to speak out against his cuts to public services and his treatment of public service workers. They birddogged the governor at a pre-fair event, handed out flyers at all of the fair's entrances and nearly drowned out Quinn's speech at a Democratic party rally.

While Quinn attended the Democratic County Chairman's Breakfast before the beginning of his Governor's Day, a mobile billboard stating "Governor Quinn: unfair to workers," parked outside the event. The We Are One Illinois union coalition held a press conference inside the same hotel as the breakfast to urge the governor to be fair to public workers.

Quinn has opposed working families since his 2010 election to the Prairie State's top office. Quinn unilaterally refused to pay negotiated wage increases to state workers since July 2011. AFSCME has fought with Quinn in court for more than a year to get the governor to honor the state's contract with its workers.

The governor leads the charge to slash pensions for state workers and current retirees who did not expect their retirement security to be at the whim of state politicians. Quinn is also pushing to lay off 4,000 state employees who work in human services, corrections and child protection –vital public services performed by AFSCME members across the state.

It is no wonder that AFSCME members and our labor allies made the Democrats' Governor's Day Picnic a tough day for Quinn. He had to face the collective voices of his state's working families demanding fairness for state workers. AFSCME has shown Quinn that we will not back down at the state fair, in the courtroom nor at the bargaining table.