RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE DELEGATES TO THE AFSCME PEOPLE

CONFERENCESEPTEMBER 13, 2014

WHEREAS:
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner has launched an unrelenting,
dishonest and mean-spirited attack on public employees and their unions; and

WHEREAS:
Bruce Rauner has made clear his deep-seated hostility to workers rights, whether in
the public or private sector, calling for the establishment of Right-to-Work zones in
Illinois, which would drastically undermine the economic security of working people; and

WHEREAS:
Bruce Rauner is trampling on a long tradition going back to Abraham Lincoln of
Illinois Republicans who respected working people and honest labor, including support for
the right to collective bargaining; and

WHEREAS:
Bruce Rauner has repeatedly attacked the very existence of unions that represent
teachers, sanitation workers, correctional officers, caregivers, firefighters, and other public
employees, stating that in his view, by their nature...theyre immoral; and

WHEREAS:
Bruce Rauner is a hedge fund billionaire who made a good part of his vast wealth
from public pension funds, but now argues that public pensions should be completely
abolished; and

WHEREAS:
Bruce Rauner has a documented record as a cutthroat venture capitalist who operated
private care facilities that were found to have caused unnecessary suffering and death to
hundreds of their elderly and disabled residents; who bought up companies and shipped their
jobs overseas; and who sought to cheat his workers out of the wages and benefits they had
earned; and

WHEREAS:
Bruce Rauners campaign is based on a web of lies and half-truths which mask an
agenda that would slash funding for education, shift the tax burden from the wealthy to
middle income families, and cut the wages of hundreds of thousands of working people; and

WHEREAS:
Bruce Rauner owns nine homes and belongs to a wine club that costs $140,000
annually just to join, yet rails against the modest pay and benefits of public employees; and

WHEREAS:
Bruce Rauner says he will cut the pay and benefits of public employees, vowing to
force them out on strike to impose his will; and

WHEREAS:
Bruce Rauner represents a profound threat to the decent standard of living and basic
workplace rights that AFSCME members have fought so hard to attain; and

WHEREAS:
AFSCME Council 31 has pledged to do everything possible to defeat Bruce Rauner;
and

WHEREAS:
Critical to defeating Bruce Rauner is ensuring that as many citizens as possible cast
their votes for Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Pat Quinn; and

WHEREAS:
The serious differences that AFSCME has had with Governor Quinn over the past
four years cannot stand as a barrier to taking the necessary actions to defeat Bruce Rauner.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That AFSCME Council 31 recommends support for Pat Quinn for governor of the
State of Illinois.