Skip to main content

Illinois' House Speaker Calls for May 14th Vote on Right to Work Zones


Last week, Illinois' House Speaker Michael Madigan announced he had scheduled a May 14th vote on Governor Bruce Rauner's proposed right to work zones.  

For those who might not remember, in April, Governor Rauner proposed right to work zones in which individual communities could vote on whether to be right to work zones.  (Illinois Governor Proposes Right to Work Zones).  Unlike 25 other states which have passed state-wide right to work laws, this proposal would allow individual communities to decide whether or not employees should be forced to join a union or pay union dues as a condition of employment.  As I had noted previously, in a union friendly and liberal leaning state like Illinois, state-wide right to work legislation likely would not pass.  As a result, these proposed right to work zones are an interesting way of allowing parts of the state to adopt these laws without going through the process of trying to get a state-wide bill passed.

However, even with the upcoming vote in the Illinois House, the Governor has yet to submit a formal bill to the legislature.  As expected, Democrats are using this vote, as they have done with other proposed initiatives from the Governor, for a very simple reason:  Use the lack of votes for the Governor's proposals as leverage to show the Governor (and grand stand for their constituents) that these proposals do not have the votes to pass and do not represent the best interests of Illinois residents.  

Keep in mind that the Illinois House is made up of 71 Democrats and 47 Republicans.  Even if the House approved these right to work zones, a vote would still be needed by the Senate (which is also controlled by Democrats, 39 to 20) before it would reach the Governor's desk.  This is certainly something to keep an eye on this week.


For additional information, follow the link:  http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20150507/NEWS02/150509845/madigan-calls-vote-on-right-to-work-legislation

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

San Diego Rolls Back Vaccine Mandate For City Workers

Last Tuesday, the San Diego City Council voted to do away with the vaccine mandate for city employees. The city’s vaccine mandate that was in place required city workers to get the coronavirus vaccine or risk termination.  Perhaps to this surprise of no one, the city’s policy came under fire with 14 employees being terminated and over 100 other employees resigning.  With the coronavirus subsiding, including in Southern California, the San Diego City Council took action. Now, bear in mind, the repeal of the vaccine mandate does not take place immediately. With that being said, the mandate will be repealed March 8th.  I suppose the question now is, what other cities or regions follow San Diego’s lead? For additional information:   https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2023-01-24/san-diego-repeals-controversial-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-citing-drop-in-cases-hospitalizations
Post a Comment
Read more

NLRB: Former Employee Cannot Be Barred From Work Premises After Filing Wage Suit

MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC - NLRB Facts :  MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC d/b/a Grand Sierra Resort & Casino ("GSR") operated a facility that included a hotel, casino, restaurant, clubs, bars, and a pool which were all open to the general public.  Tiffany Sargent ("Sargent") was briefly employed by GSR as a "beverage supervisor" in December of 2012.  After her employment ended, Sargent continued to socialize at one of the clubs.  GSR had a long standing practice of allowing former employees to patronize its facility and did not prohibit Sargent from doing so.  In June of 2013, Sargent and another employee filed a class and collective action against GSR for alleged unpaid wages, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Nevada law.  In July of 2014, GSR denied Sargent access to an event at one of the clubs.  GSR followed up with a letter and stated that with the on-going litigation (from the wage suit), it decided to bar Sargent from the premises. ...
1 comment
Read more