Public employees: Punching bags for billionaires?

How did it happen? Suddenly, it is all too painfully clear that public employees—in every branch of government and in every type of work—have become punching bags for America’s billionaire class. 

How can it be that millions of Americans who do some of the most challenging and essential work in our country have become the target of such unrelenting animosity?

Actually, it all began right here in Illinois over a decade ago. Bruce Rauner’s run for governor and subsequent reign in that role was almost solely devoted to his crusade to take down public employees and their unions.  

There was some dispute at the time as to whether Rauner was “just” a millionaire or whether he made it into the billionaire category. But there was never any doubt that one of his most enthusiastic cheerleaders, Ken Griffin, was the personification of that new billionaire class, wielding untold wealth and power. 

Once elected, it quickly became clear that Rauner had no clue how to make government operate more efficiently—nor did he really seem interested in doing so. 

In truth, Bruce Rauner was really and exclusively about taking down public employee unions—so he could then take down public employees.

Even back then I was deeply puzzled as to why guys like Rauner and Griffin, with immense wealth at their disposal and immense influence, would devote their time and energy to trying to drive down the modest wages and silence the voices of public workers.

At the bottom of it all was the seemingly insatiable urge to take away the jobs of these workers, either through privatization of the services they provided or by abandonment of those services altogether.

Very strange, to be sure. After all, those jobs—good union jobs that pay a fair wage—are an essential part of our state’s economy. It is only on a foundation of such stable, family-supporting employment that our economy can grow and thrive. And one would think such growth would be a positive factor for those as devoted to accumulating wealth as that duo.

But no, they’ve got a different take. Perhaps because it’s not just about wealth or “influence” but power—raw power, as in total and complete control, as in being able to act with impunity, without regard for the rule of law.  

Fortunately, that kind of consolidation of power in the hands of a very few wasn’t in the cards in Illinois. We fought back against Rauner’s assaults at every turn and blew the whistle very loud on his failure to keep Illinois even modestly functional as the state debt soared, the state’s credit rating plummeted, and vital services suffered.

You know the ending to that particular story—a win for the people of Illinois. Once voters decisively defeated him in the next election, Rauner quickly abandoned our state and hustled off to Florida—with Ken Griffin trailing close behind.

Lessons learned! Or so one would have hoped. 

Instead, today we find ourselves facing an assault on public employees and our unions far more vicious and sweeping than Bruce Rauner ever attempted. Rauner, it turned out, was hampered by a lingering regard for the rule of law.

That regard is alarmingly absent in today’s billionaire class—as currently embodied in the horse whisperers of the Trump administration. It is an administration built from a blueprint that attempts to enshrine that class in power, possibly for decades to come—embodied in the Heritage Foundation’s governing plan, Project 2025.  

Starting with that row of billionaires lined up behind Trump at his inauguration and running straightaway to the handing off of the entire federal government to the whims of Elon Musk in the first months of the new administration, it’s been all too clear that the billionaire class—freed of any restraints—is now calling the shots.

And it’s also very clear that their target is public employees and our unions—beginning with the entire federal workforce. In just the first nine months of the Trump administration, more than 200,000 workers have been summarily dismissed from their jobs, leaving many federal agencies—and vital national government functions—in alarming disarray.

And just to be sure that the workers who remain are sufficiently beaten down, the Trump administration has been tearing up their union contracts and totally obliterating their bargaining rights. Memos issued to employees take the tone of overlords addressing their serfs.

But the billionaires just keep rolling along, accumulating more wealth by the minute. The big ugly bill recently enacted will force sweeping cuts to vital services, while actually providing additional tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.

If it were up to the billionaire class, Social Security and Medicare would be gone. So why would we need a Social Security Administration?

Public lands would be sold off to the highest bidder. So why would we need a National Parks Service? Corporations would manage their own poisonous pollutants. So why would we need an Environmental Protection Agency?  You get the picture. 

We cannot sit on the sidelines and watch this all-out assault on federal employees and the services they provide. When public employees in Illinois were under attack, we organized an all-labor march in Springfield that brought out scores of private sector workers who were not directedly impacted by Rauner’s assault but understood the urgent need for a unified labor response.

We need that kind of unity and determination even more today. We need to stand up for the federal employees who are under such unrelenting attack because, believe me, we are next on the billionaires’ hit list. If we act decisively now, we can forge a force powerful enough to resist their takeover of our country. We can restore the rule of law. We can protect programs like Social Security so vital to the lives of everyday people. We can protect our jobs. And we can preserve and strengthen our union—all unions—so that public workers will have a voice on the job and a fighting force to defend our American democracy.