Quinn takes jab at legislators

As Gov. Pat Quinn praised the work ethic of employees at a Southwest Side factory Thursday, he took a jab at the legislators whose salaries he had just suspended the day before.

“It’s very important that those who work for a living, that we honor their work,” Quinn said of employees at AllCell Technologies, which makes lithium batteries for electric bicycles.

“They get paid their wages, their salaries, after they get the job done. If you don’t get the job done, it’s hard to make an argument that you should get paid,” the governor said in a thinly veiled reference to legislators who failed to meet his Tuesday deadline to pass a pension-reform bill.

Questioned by reporters after his speech, Quinn said he thinks his actions will withstand any constitutional challenges.

“I think that it’s important that we keep the pressure on,” he said. “We need fundamental overhaul on pension reform; that has not happened yet. . . . Until a bill gets on my desk that’s comprehensive when it comes to pension reform, there will be no pay for the Legislature, and I will voluntarily take no pay for myself until we get the job done.”

Asked about comparisons to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who tried to halt pay increases for lawmakers and judges, Quinn said: “They can call me all the names they want; the bottom line is I want to do what’s right for the people of Illinois.”

Quinn toured the battery company because it is a successful beneficiary of Advantage Illinois, a state program that funnels federal money to innovative companies.