CPS teachers who are unsure about their options on April 1 can call 312-805-0969 for information or assistance.
Middle-class Illinoisans who aren’t employed by the government are suffering, but Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan stands in the way of solutions.
A new poll conducted by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute in February 2016 reveals that a clear majority of voters – including 55 percent of Democrats and 51 percent of union members – support or lean toward supporting Right-to-Work laws.
The Chicago Teachers Union has threatened to strike as early as April 1 over Chicago Public Schools’ announced plan to stop paying a portion of teachers’ required contributions to their pension fund. Under Illinois labor law, however, CTU cannot legally strike before mid- to late-May.
Through House Bill 580, Democrats in the General Assembly take a second run at removing Gov. Bruce Rauner from contract negotiations with AFSCME.
West Virginia’s Senate has passed legislation to protect a worker’s right to choose to join a union, or to opt out entirely.
Lacking signs of progress after 24 bargaining sessions with Illinois’ largest government-employee union, Gov. Bruce Rauner says that “further negotiation is no longer worthwhile.” AFSCME continues to ignore the fact that the people who pay its members’ salaries and benefits, Illinois taxpayers, continue to struggle in a difficult Illinois economy. Illinois workers, faced with stagnant earnings, are now paying for AFSCME salaries that are double their own.
Illinois could have saved a cumulative $3.5 billion had AFSCME salaries simply grown at the rate of inflation since 2004.
On Jan. 11, lawyers for the plaintiffs in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association will argue before the U.S. Supreme Court that the First Amendment prohibits the government from forcing its employees to pay union fees.
AFSCME's demands would cost Illinois taxpayers an additional $3 billion over the course of the contract.
Without a strike fund, AFSCME – which represents 60,000 state workers in Illinois – has avoided a strike. But since the union announced that the governor has walked way from contract talks, a strike could be on the horizon.
In the face of strident union opposition, Lincolnshire’s Village Board voted 5-1 to pass a worker-freedom ordinance.
If the unions really think it's so unfair that they have to represent everyone, then how about we change the law to "one or none" so that they only have to represent union supporters?
No worker should be forced to pay a union in order to have or hold onto a job. Workers in Lincolnshire are now the first in Illinois to be guaranteed this basic right, as the Village Board voted Dec. 14 to adopt local Right to Work.