Peoria Unions Protest Taxpayer Savings

Krumholtz Bros. Landscaping, a local non-union construction contractor, was by far the lowest bid on the contract to control erosion along Grandview Drive, which is part of the Peoria Park District.

When Krumholstz bid was the lowest, long-time park board member and hard core Democrat, Jackie Petty, strongly protested awarding the contract to the low bidder because they were non-union. Krumholtz claim they pay prevailing wages, same pay as union workers.

The majority of the board, led by another Democrat Tim Cassidy, moved the vote forward and Krumholtz was awarded the bid saving thousands of dollars for the tax-supported park district and the tax-payers who support the $44 million park budget.

Kudos to those PPD members who voted to award the contract to the low bidder, a firm with a solid reputation in the community.

The union or unions immediately put up a protesting picket line at the entrance to Glen Oak Park, current headquarters of the PPD.

So the unions try to sell communities that they have the "best interest " of the citizens at the heart of all their activies. One has to look no further than  Wisconsin, Chicago and Peoria (two unions locally stand out as most belligerent, the (ITF and AFSCME) to see why many businesses shy away from doing business in Peoria,

Name one major business that has relocated to Peoria County in the past innumerable years. While moving a lot of their business to RTW states, Caterpillar stays because they know how to negotiate a fair contract.

When I was on the Peoria County Board, Krumholtz was low bidder on a contract in the county. Democrat Mike Phelan led the protest against the low bid costing taxpayers thousands of dollars when the Democrat controlled Peoria County Board rejected the Krumholtaz low bid.

Phelans reasoning was that Krumholz had made an error of under $1000, corrected once the error was discovered. The error was years ago and had no effect on the bidding process.

Was Phelan's protest actually was a protest that the low bidder was non-union? Why, of course not!!!

Democrat politicians are making every effort to unionize everybody in the public sector. In the public sector, politicians are mainly Democrats such as in the Chicago area.

Once unionized, the unions try to convince  union employees that they switch to  carry expensive union health care, etc.

Interesting to note that on Oct. 2, Reporter Nona Tepper,  of the Peoria Journal Star carried a story on the park project without mentioning the picketing at the entrance to  Park Headquarters.

Actually, most interesting as the "movers and shakers" dismiss a considerable number of employees whose job is economic development in the area.

Hmmmm.