AFSCME's anti-Quinn billboard hits the road

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — AFSCME doesn’t have dozens of its members deployed here to dog Gov. Pat Quinn’s move as was the case a couple of weeks ago at his Illinois State Fair rally, where he was booed off the stage.

But state government’s largest employee union has sent a billboard truck to remind the governor it’s still not happy he wants to lay off as many as 4,000 workers, cut pension benefits and withhold raises to AFSCME’s rank and file.

The truck’s first stop was to be a fundraiser by the governor Monday night in downtown Charlotte.

The union’s Labor Day protesting of the governor also included a letter to members of the Illinois delegation at the Democratic National Convention, slamming Quinn for trying to “undermine the best interests of working people.”

“Please tell Governor Quinn that refusing to honor union contracts, eliminating thousands of good jobs and seeking to place the entire burden of the state’s pension debt on employees and retirees has no place in the Democratic Party or its proud history of support for working men and women and the unions that represent them,” the letter said.

The correspondence was signed by delegates John Cameron, AFSCME Council 31 director of political and community relations, of Chicago; Joseph Gump, AFSCME Local 3315 political action chair, of Palatine; Dino Leone, AFSCME Council 31 staff representative, of Milan; and Mary Plata, AFSCME Local 3298 secretary-treasurer, of Aurora.