Business groups critical of Future of Work Task Force report

[June 01, 2022] By Kevin Bessler | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – A bipartisan task force made up of labor, education, business and legislative leaders has finished the “Future of Work” report, but not all are giving it a thumbs up.

Workplaces have been evolving over the years and accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, with remote work and e-commerce expanding significantly.

A “Future of Work” task force spokesperson said the report recommends 58 policy proposals to prepare the state’s workforce for the economy of tomorrow.

The report centers around the concept that good jobs are good business, stating that by “focusing on job quality, Illinois can build a strong economy and workforce now, which in turn leads to a more efficient and productive workforce in the future.”

“I truly believe that this report is an incredible blueprint for us, not just for the next two years, but the next 5 or 10 and so forth,” task force co-chair Ram Villivallam, D-Chicago, said.

Several business groups, including the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, say they are disappointed by the report, noting the process was deeply flawed.

Brad Tietz, vice president of government relations with the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, said not everyone was involved in critical conversations, if they were held at all.

“Of the 60-plus recommendations in this report, we probably support 55 of them outright, but most of them were never discussed during the report itself,” Tietz said.

Also troubling was that two of the task force managers in charge of planning meetings and developing subject matter were contract lobbyists, Tietz said.
 

The groups also said the final report to be voted on was provided to the full task force at 6:45 a.m. for a 9 a.m. vote the same day. They note while the vote only required a majority of the quorum present, only 17 of the 35 stakeholders voted to approve the report.

“The body of the report, if you go through it, it is decidedly against business, and ultimately for those reasons, we decided to vote no on the report,” Tietz said.

The report will now go to the General Assembly.

Kevin Bessler reports on statewide issues in Illinois for the Center Square. He has over 30 years of experience in radio news reporting throughout the Midwest.