*Frontline employees do the real work of state government.

We care for disabled veterans, risk our lives in state prisons, monitor paroled convicts, protect children from abuse and neglect, assist in disasters and more. *Breaking a contract, Gov. Quinn says he will not pay the wages we are owed starting July 1. He says he cant afford it but its wrong and unlawful for the governor to simply ignore a legally binding collective bargaining agreement. *In April 1968, Memphis sanitation workers marched with Dr. King, carrying signs that read Collective Bargaining Is the American Way. This April, public employees carried those signs in Wisconsin and Ohio, where governors changed the law to rob workers of their right to bargain collectively. Pat Quinn criticized those governorsbut now Quinn himself is trampling on collective bargaining. *State government workers have already stepped up to help in tough fiscal times. Frontline state employees like correctional officers, child protection workers, nurses, safety inspectors and parole officers mostly live from paycheck to paycheck. Weve already deferred three scheduled pay increases over the past 18 months. Weve volunteered to take unpaid furlough days. And weve contributed dozens of ideas for greater efficiencies that have saved the state tens of millions of dollars. Now the state needs to keep its end of the bargain.