Illinois Governor Delivers $10,000 Check To Help Feed Striking Workers

[hue]

Source: THINKPROGRESS Economy

Workers at a Caterpillar plant in Joliet, Illinois, have been on strike to protest their company’s attempt to freeze wages and pensions for several years. The company is demanding these concessions despite making billions of dollars in profits and paying its CEO $17 million.

Last week, Gov. Pat Quinn (D-IL) visited the striking workers, lending them financial support in the form of a $10,000 check:

Striking Caterpillar employees received a show of support Friday, when Gov. Pat Quinn visited the Joliet picket line to meet workers and donate $10,000 to a food fund set up for their benefit.

“We believe that when somebody in our state needs a helping hand, we help them out,” Quinn said to the cheering crowd. “As governor of our state, I wanted to make sure that, tomorrow, this big food drive here gets a good start. So, I gave a $10,000 check.”

Members of the International Association of Machinists Local 851 have been on strike for over three months. Friday’s visit was Quinn’s first and it followed up an appearance by U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) earlier in the week.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/08/13/684981/illinois-striking-workers-quinn/

[Earth_First]

1. SOLIDARITY!

[freshwest]

2. +1

[alp227]

4. 2nd + K&R for this thread!!

[HooptieWagon]

3. Wow!

[lunasun]

5. Thank you to my gov Quinn for the support to workers!!!

[lonestarnot]

6. K & R!

[leveymg]

7. Thought I was reading a reprint of newspaper from 1937. Illinois has a Democratic Gov. Old School.

Pat Quinn has my applause, and will send him and the strikers a few bucks.

How about you, Mr. President?

[limpyhobbler]

8. really cool of the gov. to help out the catepiller workers. nt

[DianaForRussFeingold]

9. K&R Way to go!

What a nice man..Thank You!!!

[cstanleytech]

10. Is the pay cut warranted though for these workers?

I realize the company itself is well off but hows this specific factory where the workers striking doing?
Is it making money, costing money or just breaking even for the company?
If its atleast not losing the company money then sure the company needs to suck it up but if its costing them more than its taking in then perhaps some compromise could be found such as offering the people retraining and or a transfer to another division within the company?

[Heywood J]

15. I guess you'll be the next one to volunteer for a "warranted" 50% pay cut

so your employer can make more record profits. You could volunteer to work for Mexican or Chinese wages so your CEO can make even more than $17M.

[cstanleytech]

16. Heywood this isnt about me its about the math and if the math

supports the workers then great if it doesnt then it doesnt, it sucks but math is math no matter how much we all wish it might be otherwise and I speak as someone who struggles week to week worrying about what bills to pay and if I'll be able to afford groceries this week.
So can you defend your opinion using the math rather than trying to turn it into a personal attack on me? If so that would be awesome because like I said if the math supports the workers then awesome and I will gladly offer them my full support.

[blackspade]

19. The problem with that kind of 'math' is this:

It makes the profitability of a particular factory the responsibility of the worker rather than the management.
The average line worker today is far more efficient that those producing goods 20 years ago. This has driven wages down and increased profits for companies at the expense of worker pay and compensation.
Now they are seeking to further increase profits by demanding wage concessions from workers.
How about cutting manager salaries? How about cutting salaries and bonuses for CEOs?
It is tragic that those that are the most vulnerable within the corporate structure are the very people that are expected to bear the most burdens, both in occupation and poor wages, and are the ones expected to accept pay cuts.
These workers are the ones that actually produce the things that make the company money.
Management treats them like parasites when the opposite is true.

[cstanleytech]

20. Except I am not blaming the workers I am just someone unwilling to

to blame either the company or the workers without more info on whats going on which is not the pay of the CEOS but rather the performance of this specific factory and if you would scroll up I also asked if this specific factory is losing money then perhaps the company could look at at a compromise of retraining and or transferring some of the workers.

[blackspade]

21. I read all of your posts.

Your operating on a false premise that the demand for wage concessions may be the fault of the plant workers.
The company is turning a massive profit.
If this were an issue of unproductive workers, they would be going after those particular workers rather than the whole work force.
If the plant is loosing money, it is a problem with the management not the line workers.
This is classic corporate CYA that blames workers for the failings of management.

[cstanleytech]

23. *sigh* Whatever. nt

[Ikonoklast]

32. Caterpillar will soon have another new facility in Texas operational.

They will move all the Joliet production to Texas, and don't want any of the unionized Illinois employees there.

If they are on strike, they can be left behind with no right to transfer to the new facility and all the hires in Texas be new hires, non-union with no seniority, in a right-to-work-for-less state.

The new facility will do the exact same hydraulic manufacturing previously done in Joliet.

Cat offered a contract that they knew Joliet employees would reject on purpose.

This was a strategic decision made by Cat management.

It has nothing to do with the productivity or profitability of the Joliet plant.


It has nothing to do with the profitability of the company, as it is solidly in the black. It has everything to do with getting cheaper labor by busting unions.

[cstanleytech]

33. Thank you very much. This actually sheds alot more light on the issue instead of the typical

"lets blame the corporation and the workers are always right but we wont provide any details on why" that I see so much of going on here.
With this info I would say the workers need to tell cat where to shove it.

[Ikonoklast]

34. I don't believe there is anything that the Joliet workers can do to save their jobs except

be willing to work for the entry wages Cat is going to offer in Texas...even then, seems doubtful.

The contract offered to Joliet was for a five-year wage freeze, some benefits given back, with a big increase in the employee health care contribution.

They already have a tiered wage scale, some of the new hires at Joliet make $13 an hour. They are trying to make top-tier wage employees retire early or quit.

The reason given by Cat management was that they want to stay competitive "in the future".

Even as management is giving themselves enormous record bonuses.

I guess that doesn't harm the bottom line, somehow.

[blackspade]

35. Honestly I didn't feel the need to provide details on my position...

About the workers having a legit reason to strike because I figured that you had read the article and the associated links.
Almost everything that IKonoklast posted is in those articles.

[murielm99]

11. Everybody likes to joke about how corrupt we are,

but I AM proud to live in this blue state. We have some fantastic Democrats here.

[whathehell]

31. I second that!

Proud to live in Chicagoland !

*Yes, the Chicago "metro area" is frequently referred to that way

way, like a theme park and when I first moved here, I found

that hilarious, but now I hardly notice 'cause I just love the place!

[davsand]

12. I'll give Quinn credit for this, but there are other things he's done that I dislike.

Last edited Tue Aug 14, 2012, 12:41 PM - Edit history (1)

If Quinn was all that worried about workers in Illinois I sincerely doubt he'd have advanced the budget he did--cutting funding for Human Services, closing correctional facilities, and screwing state retirees out of promised medical insurance coverage. His attempt to unload the burden of funding teacher pensions is another horribly negative thing. The common thread in all of this is those were and ARE union workers and retirees impacted by those decisions. SEIU and AFSCME are not pleased with him, nor is the IEA or IFT.

I don't think Quinn is anywhere near as pro-labor as you might think if you look only at this one trip to the Cat plant. Yes, I know Quinn is hip deep in alligators with our budget situation, but handing one check to striking workers in an election year does not tell the complete and accurate story. Yes, I agree it was a good thing to do--supporting those worker--but do NOT make the mistake of thinking Quinn is something he's not.

YMMV.


Laura

[andlor]

17. +1

[ohplease90]

25. Whatever

Right on! He's not really concerned, he's simply trying to rally votes somewhere seeing as he's PO all the state workers. I highly doubt this man has any sympathetic bones in his body. He's closing state facilities left and right and leaving tons of people unemployed. People who have dedicated their lives working for the state while it was convenient for them to keep these facilities open. Now the very people that worked hard and kept these places running are being punished for mistakes made higher up the chain. He does not care about the people he simply wants to be re-elected. He makes me sick.

By all means the people from the CAT plant deserve this $10,000 and probably more, but how this man can stand there like some hero or saint..while leaving 1,000's unemployed and sacrificing the well being of developmentally challenged individuals is beyond me. All the comments on here praising this douche was too much for me.

I've always been a devoted democrat voter..but if its between this jerk and a republican I will not vote for him.

All those people that losing there jobs are now going to be getting paid, sitting at home with unemployment benefits..where the hell is that money going to come from? Id rather work for my money (like I'm sure most of these people would) then collecting unemployment. He is a joke.

[greatauntoftriplets]

27. Quinn has said he won't run again.

You'd vote for a teabagger like Bill Brady over a Democrat? Brady will really take care of the state employees.

[madrchsod]

29. brady would have been another walker

the koch brothers would have been paving illinois with money to break the afscme union. i think 95% or more of state workers are union. even managers and some supervisors.

[Kingofalldems]

30. Democrat voter you say

[IndyJones]

13. These stories are just so disgusting to me. A CEO can make $17 million and turn around and cut

salaries and benefits and often the company pays very little in taxes. Just really pisses me off.

[Omaha Steve]

14. K&R!

[senseandsensibility]

18. And that, ladies and gentleman, is a DEMOCRAT.

[Stuart G]

24. K and R nt.

[patrice]

26. Workers LEADING The Way!! Solidarity, Governor Quinn!!

[madrchsod]

28. he`s no friend of the afscme union in this state.....