Unions urge Kane County to rebuff Rauner agenda

Union members and supporters jammed the Kane County Board chambers Tuesday and exhorted officials to reject any anti-labor facets of Gov. Bruce Rauner's turnaround agenda. They succeeded in at least forcing another week of thought on the matter.

Following a recent Rauner visit, Kane County Board Chairman Chris Lauzen directed the county board's legislative committee to draft a resolution supporting at least part of Rauner's vision to solve the state budget crisis.

Lauzen also issued a statement he called a road map for the committee's discussion that included a quote from President Franklin Roosevelt saying unions have no place in government. Lauzen supports Rauner's call for decisions about the existence of public employee unions to be a local choice.

Those statements fueled the presence of a standing-room-only audience for the county's first crack at drafting a resolution that supports Rauner.

Jan Bradley, a retired worker at the Illinois Youth Center in St. Charles, urged the legislative committee to junk Rauner's "anti-worker agenda."

"The governor has spent the first 100 days in office focused on attacking the middle class of our state," Bradley said. "Gov. Rauner wants Kane County to cosign for the destruction of the hardworking people in Kane County."

Corey Johnson, a field representative for Elgin-based Laborers' Local 582, said Rauner is holding income tax dollars, grants and projects hostage in exchange for resolutions supporting the destruction of unions.

"To do this, you must vilify good people, people who are citizens of this community who are your friends, neighbors and relatives, people the governor won't have to look in the eye, but you do," Johnson said.

County board member Myrna Molina supported that perspective.

"I will not support any politically motivated crusade against the working class in Kane County," she said. "That is not something we'll be discussing now or in the near future."

Committee chairman Brian Pollock said Molina won't be forced to have that discussion.

"What Kane County wants to do is have its own solution," Pollock said. "Kane County has a long history with labor. A good chunk of our employees are represented by labor unions. This has never been a partisan issue. We're not looking to get into battles like that. We want to come up with a solution that's not divisive."

That solution will come under Lauzen's direct leadership. Pollock's committee tabled discussion on any Rauner resolution and diverted the debate to the committee of the whole, which Lauzen chairs. They meet at 4 p.m. next Tuesday. Directly outside the meeting room, union supporters fired each other up about attending the Tuesday meeting.

"Keep showing up and reminding them who voted them into office and who pays the taxes to fund the programs," yelled AFSCME representative Carla Williams to a responsive crowd. "We don't quit. We keep showing up."