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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

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