COLLINSVILLE – Advocates for the middle class are calling on candidates for state office to stand up to extreme attacks on workers’ rights by signing the “Contract with the Middle Class,” a pledge to protect wages, workplace protections and collective bargaining rights for all.

Leaders of the AFL-CIO are asking candidates running for office to join them at a press conference IBEW Local 309 at 2000A Mill Street in Collinsville on Tuesday, Sept. 4 at 11 a.m. to sign the pledge.

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“Governor Rauner wants to run a campaign built on distractions because his record of failure is so clear, so we are asking candidates to make it clear where they stand on the issues that matter most to Illinois’ working families,” said Michael Carrigan, president of the Illinois AFL-CIO. “After four years of Governor Rauner’s failure culminating in the Supreme Court’s Janus decision voters deserve to see clearly who will stand with them to build a better Illinois and who will continue to push Bruce Rauner’s destructive agenda.”

The Illinois AFL-CIO’s “Contract with the Middle Class” calls on candidates to put the middle-class agenda ahead of the billionaire agenda by committing to opposing phony reforms that strip away workers’ rights, and instead support specific plans to create jobs while lifting up the middle class including collective bargaining rights, equal pay for women, affordable health care and retirement benefits workers have earned.

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