After election, Lynch says, "we will reach out, not retreat"

AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch on the election results of Nov. 8, 2016:

"In our state and across the nation, Tuesday, Nov. 8, was the culmination of the most contentious election cycle in memory. While working people won important victories—and more of them in Illinois than in many other places—the outcomes in too many cases gave greater power to billionaires whose agendas will only intensify the concentration of wealth in the hands of a narrow elite.

"While the election of Donald Trump as our nation’s president undoubtedly represents a widespread and fierce impulse to challenge that elite, there is a very real danger that the complete stranglehold that Republicans now have on the federal government will actually accomplish the opposite, further consolidating power in the hands of the wealthy few.

"Even so, on Wednesday, the tens of thousands of members of our union got up and did what they always do, went to work in the public service for the betterment of their communities all across Illinois.

"Just as AFSCME members never quit, no matter the adversity, neither will our union shrink from the cause of lifting up all working people. We will stand up and keep fighting for the basic right of all workers to join together to advocate for a better life and for the dignity of every human being.

"We will reach out, not retreat. Together with our allies—including hundreds of thousands of other union members in Illinois and the millions of our neighbors who count on the public services we provide—we will keep building an even stronger movement for fundamental fairness and shared prosperity, united in the belief that we all do better when we all do better."