Dick Durbin At Pro-Union Rally In Chicago: Walker Trying To 'Destroy A Basic American Right' (VIDEO)

On Saturday, Chicagoans joined the chorus of protesters across the country to support union members in Wisconsin and other states who are fighting to keep their bargaining rights.

More than 1,000 people reportedly turned out at the afternoon Thompson Center rally, chanting "Save the American Dream."

Demonstrators gathered elsewhere in Illinois as well. Hundreds of union supporters rallied in Springfield Saturday afternoon.

"If they bust the unions up (in Wisconsin), it's a matter of time before they bust the unions up here," laid-off Illinois electrician Rich Bonzani told the Chicago Tribune. "It's an assault on the middle class."

Sen. Dick Durbin was one of several speakers to address the Chicago crowd, and slammed Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's plan to strip about 170,000 of Wisconsin's public employees of their collective bargaining rights. Walker has defended the move as a way to fill a budget gap.

"Governor Walker's agenda in Wisconsin goes way beyond the budget. He's trying to destroy a basic American right," Durbin said at the rally, according to ABC Chicago. (Scroll down for video)

Durbin also told the crowd that senators fleeing Wisconsin in an effort to stop the legislation would always be welcome in Illinois.

One of those senators, Wisconsin Democrat Lena Taylor, visited Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition on Saturday--and told a crowd of supporters that she would not be returning to Wisconsin to allow a vote on Walker's bill.

"We believe in protecting the rights of people," Taylor said. "His agenda is wrong for Wisconsin and we're standing with the people."

WATCH WGN's coverage of the rally here:

 

Comments

[GustavoRejivik]

11:23 PM on 03/01/2011

The idea of Collective Bargaining as a 'right' is absurd.... besides ... didn't Jimmy Carter and a Democrat ruled Congress ELIMINATE that right for Federal Workers??

Yes he did.

[JohnBryansFontaine]

01:49 PM on 03/01/2011

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UjKHCanIuWQ/TWV5VwLLHJI/AAAAAAAADaQ/ioCiAn9ivSs/s1600/people_walker_scott_dope.gif

[WOODSTOCKER51]

08:42 AM on 03/01/2011

IF HE GETS RID OF EVERY STATE WORKER....HE WILL BE ABLE TO TELL ALL AMERICA..."HE PERSONALLY DESTROYED A STATE THAT HAD REAL PEOPLE IN IT..."AND NEVER FIRED A SHOT"...

[SwimUpstream]

02:38 PM on 02/28/2011

Here's the basic America right durbin: If you like the terms that an employer offers, then take the job. If not, then you have the right to walk away.

[WOODSTOCKER51]

08:44 AM on 03/01/2011

YES."SLAVERY OR SERFDOM"...THE CHOICES YOU WANT AMERICIANS TO MAKE FOR THE GOOD OF THE SUPER WEALTHY....MUST BE NICE LIVING IN YOUR MANSION..TRUE?

[Ptolemy Philopator]

02:21 PM on 02/28/2011

As Robber Baron Jay Gould famously said, "I can hire half the working class, to kill the other half of the working class." The "Coke" Brothers have obviously taken a page from his book along with their lackey Governor Walker. Whereas I support the public service unions in their efforts to confront the Robber Barons, I do wonder where they were when their man Bill Clinton signed NAFTA and decimated the working class? Union members are not immune from the "I got mine" syndrome affecting this country. If and when they win this battle, will they still turn out for the rest of the working class? As a community organizer I have had opportunity to deal with many a "reactionary" public employee denying benefits to poor children. Don't mean to rain on your parade, and its about time people took to the streets, but after his photo op in Wisconsin is Democrat Durbin going back to the Senate for his secret negotiations with the Republicans on cutting Social Security? Wasn't he one of the Democrats on the President's Deficit Reduction Commission who voted to reduce Social Security Benefits. Yes it is so easy to play team politics, the issues are so much more complex, than go Democrats, boo Republicans. Not only do we have to deplore Republican class warfate, but we have to hold Democrats feet to the fire as well. Many times they do far more damage than the all too obvious Republicans, witness the witless Bill Clinton.

[StuffMoreStuff]

01:11 PM on 02/28/2011

Duh, where else is he gonna get his reelection fund from?! Therein lying the real crux of the matter. Union dues going to get candidates elected, who turn around and dole out more benefits, and around and around it goes till, like IL the state cries "broke" and wants more money (in real terms) form the taxpayer.
The only real question is, how did it take this low for people to get wise to this?

[SwimUpstream]

02:39 PM on 02/28/2011

Note that Illinois just increase it's income tax 66% !!!!!

[bkerensa]

09:38 AM on 02/28/2011

As a Democrat I must call out the Democrat leaders for trying to point fingers when it comes to "destroying a basic right". What happened to so many rights Americans used to have?

Due Process: Several State and Federal Laws destroy the basic right to due process a good example is the Patriot Act which exempts any law enforcement agency from proving to a judge that there is legal grounds to do a wiretap, conduct a search or detain someone.

Freedom of Speech: Plenty of state and federal laws limit our basic right to freedom of speech.

This destruction of basic rights is not just the Republicans doing but all lawmakers have played a role in infringing on basic rights of american citizens.

[DandaPanda]

03:11 PM on 02/28/2011

you only have freedom of speech when it comes to government intrusion on speech..all speech is not free

[WOODSTOCKER51]

08:46 AM on 03/01/2011

Freedom of Speech:

.BEST ENJOY THAT "FREEDOM" IN YOUR BATHROOM..BECAUSE..THIS IS THE FIRST STEP TO "MAKING RULES AROUND THAT"...WAKE UP DUMMY!

[morbius]

09:21 AM on 02/28/2011

Concentration of wealth and democracy are incompatable. Therefore, we as a country, are slowly rejecting a democratic way of life. How ironic that the middle east is embrasing democracy while we are systematiclly rejecting it.

[StuffMoreStuff]

01:15 PM on 02/28/2011

What's that got to do with the state (and politicians such as Durbin) doling out benefits they can't pay for (see IL bond issue to cover pension contribution)?

[morbius]

08:31 PM on 03/01/2011

It has everything to do with it; why was the tax cut for the rich passed??? THAT is what we can't afford. We don't have a tax problem; we have a revnue problem. Compare the tax rates for millionares and billionares today with the same rates under Eisenhower, Nixon or even Reagan.

[mstock57]

09:15 AM on 02/28/2011

Why does Scott Walker hate America?

[Swiggen]

09:24 AM on 02/28/2011

He doesn't. He loves corporations which ARE America. Jeez, why don't people get that?

[db08]

09:34 AM on 02/28/2011

As are our public employees and unions. Why doesn't Walker and companies get that? Or do the have to buy him off as did the Koch bros.

[morbius]

10:15 AM on 02/28/2011

If thats true, then we should change our name to "the corporate states of america" and the flag to a green banner with a dollar sign on it. I believe in truth in advertizing. The old "Rollorball" with James Caan was precient.

[NickGranite]

09:07 AM on 02/28/2011

Dear Dick (Durban)

Combing through the bill of rights, I can't find anything that mentions a minority cadre of entitled government employees who serve at the pleasure of the tax payer via the executive branch have the RIGHT to milk the rest of the middle class majority.

[morbius]

10:17 AM on 02/28/2011

This is nonsense. LET ME EXPLAIN THIS TO YOU: IT IS THE PRIVATE SECTOR THAT IS THE PROBLEM; NOT THE GOVERNMENT. WHO GOT THE HUGE TAX BREAKS, ANYWAY????

[StuffMoreStuff]

01:13 PM on 02/28/2011

Really? The private sector? U mean the same private sector, who's tax receipts fund the public sector's lavish benefits? Seems to me you might have that backwards.

[mbo2]

08:57 AM on 02/28/2011

There goes Dick Durbin, making up "rights" where none exist.

There may be a "right" to free association, but there is no "right" to collective bargaining, any more than there is a "right" to taxpayer-funded health insurance, or taxpayer-funded abortions, or a subsidized electric car.

[morbius]

09:16 AM on 02/28/2011

And there are no rights for monopolies for Big Banks, Big Oil, Big Insurance, Stock Holder Profits, CEO salarys, special low taxes for the rich (15% on investments). How conveniently you over look anything not on the right wing agenda.

[StuffMoreStuff]

01:28 PM on 02/28/2011

That's just it morbius, those AREN'T rights, they are matters of policy. Some of which I agree need to be changed, especially the 15% tax on some hedge fund profits, which I assume is what you're talking about.

[jbh2009]

10:04 AM on 02/28/2011

One thing for a private union to bargain for such things in the private secotr, but when you work for the state - and your union donates money to democratic legislators - then the negotiations are never fair. One side will always get two chances to get what they want. If state workers don't get what they want at the bargaining tale - they can just turn to the legislators their union donates to, to get what they want.

[morbius]

10:19 AM on 02/28/2011

But, of course, the Teaparty, the Koch brothers, Dick Armny are not buying legislators? Get real, pal.

[lawg01177]

08:41 AM on 02/28/2011

I am concerned that UNIONS are simply to radical and violent--- there rumors that thew southern poverty law center is going to place certain union on thier hate group list

[WOODSTOCKER51]

08:56 AM on 02/28/2011

I WONDER IS THAT SAME UNION THAT, RUSH.BECK,HANNITY,PALIN,AND OREALLY BELONG TOO...AFTER ALL.WHO SPREADS MORE HATESPEAK THEN THESE "UNION MEMBERS!"...

[lawg01177]

03:52 PM on 02/28/2011

I thought OBAMA told you guys CIVILITY?

[wesinohio]

08:57 AM on 02/28/2011

Please read more. Maybe it will improve the orthography somewhat too, if you know what I mean. But to address your point, the violence has historically come from employers, thugs hired by employers and police - not from unions.

[Enock Zamora]

08:20 AM on 02/28/2011

First they get rid of the Unions, like Hitler did in 1933, then they get rid of their moderates, like all the other hoodlums like Nero of Rome did and then comes the downfall of their country! Same
sh*t, different day!

[Swiggen]

08:52 AM on 02/28/2011

Clearly we didn't learn from history.

[Linda from Pahrump]

12:59 PM on 02/28/2011

Part of my favorite quote:

"We learn from history that we do not learn from history"

F&F

[WOODSTOCKER51]

08:58 AM on 02/28/2011

.EVEN AS THE SAME HISTORY UNFOLDS BEFORE OUR EYES...THE SHEEP WHO CLAIM TO BE "PATRIOT AMERICANS" ..CONTINUE TO ACT AS IF THEIR "SAVIORS" AHAVE ARRIVED....JUST WAIT...WHEN THEY FIND OUT THAT THEIR BILND STUPIDITY IS A WAY ...."TO SERVE MAN"...

[DinaLee1988]

02:15 PM on 03/01/2011

Please turn off your caps lock. You are giving me a headache.

[jjtx]

08:54 AM on 02/28/2011

No one dips into your paycheck. These are public sector employees working a job just like you. They receive benefits as part of their compensation; normally, the benefits are good because they have taken them in lieu of salary increases when the private sector employees were making much more in income.

My husband works for a local government entity and, believe me, he has made much less than his private sector counterparts. Also, he has paid 8% of his salary into his retirement plan for 28 years. Are you telling me he shouldn't receive the hard-earned money he put into the plan?

We don't live in a McMansion (our home is 1200 square feet); we don't have a boat and we do have a gas guzzling pickup but only because it has been paid off for 15 years and is 20 years old and all of our children have used it as their first car and I now drive it because we can't afford a car payment.

You are the one who sounds like the thug.

How many people are going to pay for 5 years of college (necessary in order to get certification to teach) at the tune of $20,000 a year in tuition, fees and books to take a low-paying, no benefits teaching job?

Think about it. Did you attend college and graduate? Did you have a load of college debt and then take a bad-paying job?

[RDWidner]

09:22 AM on 02/28/2011

He is talking about union officials and not the rank and file union members.

[TimtheEnchanted]

08:59 AM on 02/28/2011

how many teachers, cops, firemen you know living in mansions?

want what they have, get a teaching job, after you get and education.

[Swiggen]

09:06 AM on 02/28/2011

To them a cardboard box is a mansion

[formontoya]

07:56 AM on 02/28/2011

Collective bargaining is NOT any kind of worker right at any level...get over it and realize that nobody owes you anything...

[WOODSTOCKER51]

09:00 AM on 02/28/2011

OK.THEN CARRY THIS STICK OF TNT INTO THAT MINE...LIGHT IT...THEN..DO YOUR BEST TO SURVIVE THE EXPLOSIONS....FAIR?

[morbius]

10:23 AM on 02/28/2011

Neither are CEO salarys, investor profits.