Who will the IEA take to the dance? Or will we dance alone?

AFSCME President Lee Saunders.

“Quinn won’t forget who took him to the dance,” IEA President Cinda Klickna reportedly told a reader of this blog.

That was a couple of years ago.

More recently AFSCME President Lee Saunders was quoted as saying this about Pat Quinn and other turncoat Democrats.

I am sick and tired of the fair-weather Democrats. They date us, take us to the prom, marry us, and then divorce us right after the honeymoon. I am sick and tired of the so-called friends who commend us when they’re running for election, but condemn us after they’ve won. I am sick and tired of the politicians who stand with us behind closed doors, but kick us to the curb in front of the cameras. I’m here to tell you that’s bullshit and we’re not gonna take it anymore.

Many of you know some of the people I’m talking about. Mayor Michael Nutter in Philadelphia. Governor Pat Quinn in Illinois. We’ve come to expect union-busting, anti-worker tactics from ultra-conservatives like Scott Walker and John Kasich. But now, everybody’s on the bandwagon.

Look at Nutter. AFSCME members in Philadelphia haven’t had a contract in four years, and Sister Baylor knows it. What does the mayor do? He goes to the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania Supreme Court to get a legal decision that would let him shove his contract down our throats. He’s no different from Governor Snyder in Michigan, who went to his state’s Supreme Court to get legal cover for cutting school employees’ pay. Different political parties, same political games.

Look at Governor Quinn. He has waged a relentless war on state employees – slashing pensions, driving down incomes and wiping out jobs. Last year he took the unprecedented step of terminating our contract. He is the first and only Illinois governor, Republican or Democrat, to take such a blatantly aggressive action.

I have had enough of these turncoats, and it’s time to make them pay.

The question in Illinois is how to make them pay.

Quinn or Daley? Or the slate of anti-union Republicans?

The best that the IEA and the rest of the We Are One coalition of public employee unions can do is say none of the above.

And that is a pretty pathetic position to be in. Barely payback.

Meanwhile it is not too late to find primary opponents to House Democrats who voted for SB1 – Michael Madigan’s pension killer.

But without a pro-labor labor-backed slate running state-wide – in Illinois at least – it looks like there will be a lot more bullshit that we’re going to have to take.