Protesters Greet Wisconsin Governor in Lincolnshire

With chants of “Union busting is disgusting” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Scott Walker’s got to go,” more than 200 union members from Illinois and Wisconsin lined the entrance to the Marriott Lincolnshire early Friday evening to give a message to Walker and Illinois Republicans.

Walker was slated to speak later Friday night to the annual gathering of the at the hotel. The union members wanted to give a message to the local members of Walker’s party his brand of politics is not welcome in Illinois.

“What he did up there is not what we want here,” Northeastern Illinois Federation of Labor President Patrick Statter said of Walker’s efforts to reduce collective bargaining for public sector workers in Wisconsin. “If they support him they hold the same views.”

Statter was referring to people like and , who he expects to be at the event. “We want to send them into retirement too,” he added referring to the effort in Wisconsin to recall the current governor.

“Just over one million people voted for him and just under one million signed recall petitions,” Statter said. “We try to find common ground and if we can’t we compromise,” he added expressing his union philosophy.

Some of the demonstrators were angry at the legislation Walker signed into law in Wisconsin stripping most collective bargaining rights away from government workers. James Schiabieu of Waukegan was highly critical.

“We want more jobs, union jobs,” Schiabieu said. “They want to strip the jobs down to minimum wage and that’s not right, not in this country. We built this country.”

Check Patch for updates on this story with a report on Walker’s speech and comments from local Republicans at the event.