Commonwealth Foundation gives Illinois an 'F' for labor laws

[August 31, 2024]  By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – A new report says Illinois is failing when it comes to worker freedom.

Along with Policy Analyst Andrew Holman, David Osborne, senior fellow of labor policy for the Commonwealth Foundation, authored the report titled, “The Battle for Worker Freedom: Grading State Public Sector Labor Laws.”

“Well, I hate to say it. Illinois probably set a new standard for ‘F’,” Osborne said.

Illinois voters approved Amendment 1, the Right to Collective Bargaining Measure, in 2022.

Osborne said Amendment 1 takes union-friendly legislation to the constitutional level.

“An Amendment 1 would basically make it so that anything a union does has the imprimatur of constitutional protection. It’s worse than any statute I could have possibly imagined.”

Since the Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 decision in 2018, Osborne said unions can no longer force non-members to pay a fee as a condition of employment.

According to the report, the nation’s four largest government unions have lost 320,421 members since the Janus decision.

The National Education Association (NEA) lost 127,260 members since the Janus decision. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) lost 85,892 members. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) lost 68,142 members. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) lost 39,127 members.

Although the Commonwealth Foundation gave Illinois an “F” for worker freedom, the report graded neighboring states much higher.

“There are other states that are doing a tremendous job with the authority that they’ve really been given. The authority they’ve been given under federal law is to regulate their own public sector work force. And that means that states who want unionization of their public sector workers can do it, but it also means that states have the power to prohibit collective bargaining in the public space altogether. Of course, there are any number of answers between those two extremes,” Osborne explained.


The report gave Arkansas and Indiana “A+” grades, while Iowa and Wisconsin received “A’s” and Kentucky received a “B.” Missouri’s grade was a “C.”

Osborne said Florida set the gold standard for pro-worker, pro-taxpayer public sector labor reform with a measure called recertification.

“It’s a reform that they took from Wisconsin, made a few tweaks to it and I think because it allows public employees to re-elect, periodically, their union or to kick them out if they’re not being representative. Because it does that, I think it’s an especially important protection for public employees.” Osborne said.

The report stated that Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee also made notable efforts to protect workers and taxpayers from government union executives.

The report said Illinois serves as an important case study in understanding the impacts of unchecked union executive power.

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