CHICAGO — During the JB for Governor Fighting for You Tour, Governor JB Pritzker and lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Christian Mitchell held a “Standing Up for Workers” rally with Painters District Council #14 and other union members. Gov. Pritzker’s remarks were as follows:
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GOVERNOR JB PRITZKER'S STANDING UP FOR WORKERS REMARKS
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2026
Good morning to the men and women of organized labor! So great to be here with you.
Thanks to Painters District Council 14, to Business Manager Joe Rinehart, and to Political Director Hugo Manzo for hosting us today. I’m grateful for your leadership.
I also want to thank my dear friend, and the President of the Chicago Federation of Labor, Bob Reiter. Bob, you’ve made CFL a forceful fighter for working families, and you make union homes proud not just in Chicago, but across the country.
Most of all, I want to thank everyone in this room for your friendship and partnership. Illinois was built with union labor. And I’m so proud that today we’re the strongest pro-labor state in the nation. When workers thrive, everyone thrives. Businesses, families, everyone. You are the backbone of the middle class because you built the middle class. And Illinois isn’t going to let the anti-union leadership in Washington take that away.
It’s hard to think of a time in the last 40 years when the federal government has been more hostile to workers.
They've decided to sell out to big corporations, so now federal protections for workplace safety are gone. The number of OSHA inspectors is now the lowest it’s been in 45 years. We’ve fought for years to make sure that after a long day’s work, you make it home safe to your families. Now, Washington is telling you to go to hell.
On top of that, in this summer when literally the world has seen the hottest month on record, Washington is rolling back basic workplace summer heat protections, like requiring that employers provide access to drinking water. They’ve made a rule now that for every new safety measure OSHA puts in place, it has to remove ten. This is the right wing playing politics with your lives.
Then they’ve fired and lowered wages for tens of thousands of union workers who care for our veterans, who deliver our mail, who keep our food and water safe.
We have a federal government that is treating workers like garbage and telling corporations they can too.
Why? Why are they going after union workers?
First, it’s a payoff to the profiteers who put them in office. And second, they want to intimidate you — and all union members — into silence. Chip away at your rights until you decide you can’t win.
Well, they picked the wrong people to try and silence. Because union workers are tough, and no one here is going to back down from a fight.
Here in Illinois, we know better than anyone, that painters and service workers and laborers and hotel workers and stage hands and carpenters — you’re what makes America great. That’s why you always have a seat at the table in my administration.
And we’ve made enormous strides together.
We made Illinois the first in the nation to guarantee constitutional right to organize a union and bargain for better wages.
I was proud to make Illinois the third state in the country to guarantee universal paid leave for workers — not just if you’re sick, but for any reason.
I proposed and enacted the largest state infrastructure plan in our nation's history, which is investing nearly $50 billion in schools and state buildings and airports and roads and bridges — and it has created tens of thousands of working hours for people in the building trades.
We required that tradespeople are paid the prevailing wage on all state and federally funded projects, so that Illinois workers get paid what you deserve.
And I’ve nearly doubled the minimum wage in Illinois.
Why did we do all that? Because the best way to make life more affordable for you and your families is to put more money in your pockets.
And what about those worker protections Trump took away from you? Well here in Illinois I enacted a law that reversed all of that. So here in Illinois, worker protections are still the law of the land.
Earlier this month, I signed a law guaranteeing rideshare drivers the right to unionize, a right that they were denied for far too long.
We’ve built training centers for UNITE HERE and IATSE members who have made us the most hospitable place with the best entertainment in the nation. And we’ve built a new Hire360 training center that's already creating pathways for underrepresented communities to get good paying union jobs.
That’s how we show up for workers in Illinois.
In Illinois we know that a state can’t get ahead when it leaves workers behind.
So you have my word that, as governor, this fight is just beginning.
If I have the privilege of continuing to lead this great state, I’ll keep doing everything in my power to keep workers safe, healthy, and equipped to thrive.
That means making sure workers are protected on the job so you can get home safe to your families.
That means ensuring our healthcare workers get the same quality care that you provide to Illinoisans across the state every damn day.
And that means making sure that working for a living means you earn enough to make a living.
That’s the future Christian Mitchell and I are fighting for. We have work to do, and I need your help to do it. So I ask you union brothers and sisters:
Are you ready for the fight?
Are you ready for the fight?
Let’s go get ‘em.
