“The sticking issue for all of us is the pension issue,’said a labor activist who attended the meeting with Mr. Emanuel. ‘ can’t tell my members we are going to support a guy who is going to cut your pensions.’ The labor leader and others who attended the meeting said they did not want to be identified for fear that Mr. Emanuel would retaliate if he were elected.”
Emanuel informs union leaders of intention to cut pensions, not just for new hires..so they kept their members in the dark.
Feb 22, 2011 ... Rahm Emanuel declared victory in the Chicago mayor's race
My Illinois friend remarked: "Rahm knows where the bodies are buried."[an expression]
Even Democrat governors and legislatures smell the coffee. There’s no way underwater states (of which IL is one of those in the worst shape) can balance their budgets without renegotiating the public workers’ contracts. To do anything else would just be nibbling around the edges.
Negating the collective bargaining privileges is key to the process because it takes away the power of unions to buy off sympathetic politicians who will give them everything they want-taxpayers be damned.
The polls that show support for unions are the result of how little people know about where the big pieces of pie are in the local, state and federal budgets and a fundamental misunderstanding of what collective bargaining is.
Wisconsin brought this whole issue to the forefront and it was very instructive to many. More battles such as that will help inform the public. Walker was quite articulate in making his points.