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Seventh Circuit Strikes Down Illinois Right to Work Zones


Late last month, a three judge Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals panel unanimously struck down right to work zones on the grounds that Section 14(b) of the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA") does not permit local governments to put right to work zones in place.

For those needing a bit of a refresher, in 2015, the Village of Lincolnshire adopted an ordinance that created a right to work zone within its borders.  Right to work laws prohibit union membership as a condition of employment and allow employees to choose not to join a union but still benefit from the collective bargaining representation of the union.

In a liberal state that has found little in the way of statewide right to work support, Lincolnshire's ordinance was viewed as a potential run around to the ongoing fight to make Illinois the next right to work state.  Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, a Republican, has previously made his support of right to work in the state well known.  Unsurprisingly, after Lincolnshire passed its right to work zone ordinance, four different unions filed suit in an effort to stop it.  

A federal district judge struck down the law and the matter proceeded to the Seventh Circuit.  In the Seventh Circuit's opinion, Judge Diane Wood writes that Lincolnshire's ordinance "would put employers in and around the village [Lincolnshire] in an impossible position.  An employer with offices within the village whose workers' predominant job situs is outside the village in a jurisdiction without a comparable law would risk committing an unfair labor practice if its refused to bargain over an agency-shop provision.  The same employer would risk civil or criminal penalties if it misjudged "predominant" job situs and did bargain over an agency-shop rule, if most of its work was done within the village."  (Emphasis was in the opinion).  In essence, the Seventh Circuit (and labor unions) have portrayed right to work zones as an "administrative nightmare" that would be next to impossible to manage/enforce in a state as large as Illinois if each municipality had its own individual labor laws.  I think it is certainly possible that this case ends up before the United States Supreme Court sooner rather than later.  Stay tuned.



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