AFSCME attorney says Rauner a pension threat

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees attorney David Amerson, gave an hour and 15 minute presentation to about 50 retired union members at the Harris-Pruitt Building in Harrisburg Monday.

At the end retiree Joan Van Baber said, "We paid in already. Why are these people trying to take away our pension benefits?"

Amerson had spent his time well before the group. He outlined numerous threats to the promised retirement benefits of Illinois public servants. He painted current Gov. Bruce Rauner as a well-heeled threat to their retirement contracts and had little better to say about former Gov. Pat Quinn.

"Pat Quinn was no friend of ours even though we endorsed him in the election. My feelings about Quinn are good riddance to him. He was no friend of labor. He attacked collective bargaining while in office," Amerson said.

Amerson answered Van Baber's question stating, "Back in 2008 backers of the bank bailout were justifying million dollar bonuses and golden parachutes for the people responsible for the crisis. The common argument was how important the 'sanctity of contracts' is. Now, for the labor unions the popular argument is that contracts are providing a welfare system for union retirees. It was the politicians who underfunded the union accounts, who stole from the union accounts, and now they are trying to blame you for being lazy retirees."

That pretty well nailed it for most of those present. No hands were raised to challenge the thought.

Amerson spoke of how Rauner has achieved an approval rating below 40 percent in three months.

"It took Obama about six years to achieve that. So Rauner is way ahead of him," he said.

"Illinois state workers serve the highest per capita number of residents. More than Indiana, more than Missouri, more than Wisconsin. There are fewer of you because of the cutbacks."

Amerson explained how Rauner is moving his people into jobs that will make his policies easier to implement. Top of the list was a 22-year-old female law student appointed to the empty legislative seat created when Rauner made Rep. Wayne Rosenthal chief of Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The elected representative of the people was replaced by a 22-year-old-student, Amerson said.

Amerson spent time answering individual questions from the retirees before he departed for Springfield.