Here’s what Waukegan High School student Kyra Lyons had to say to CBS Chicago on the subject of the Waukegan public-school teacher strike: “Neither of them are doing anything to help the students. It’s just about money and what they want.” Kyra is a perceptive young woman. The Lake County Federation of Teachers, which has...
On Sept. 31, a panel of judges from an Illinois appellate court found that state employees were owed back pay under the contract between the state and Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME. This has set off celebrations at AFSCME, whose position all along was that the...
A few weeks ago, Frank Manzo IV of the Illinois Economic Policy Institute teamed up with Robert Bruno from the University of Illinois Labor Education Program to release yet another demonstration of how sophisticated mathematical analysis can’t fix bad data. Their report, titled “Free Rider States: How Low-Wage Employment in Right to Work States is...
Over the course of the summer, the Illinois Policy Institute has been attempting to assess how many teachers have made use of their Hudson rights – their legal right to prevent their dues from being used for union politics – and how well Hudson rights are understood in Illinois public schools. Do teachers even know...
After a year-long campaign by the nonpartisan Mackinac Center and other groups to inform Michigan’s teachers of their right to leave their union, around 5,000 teachers have decided to do so. But more than 100,000 teachers in the state remain under union control. And the Michigan Education Association, or MEA, is claiming victory for managing...
Promote worker freedom by creating local right-to-work zones.
As is their custom around Labor Day, the Gallup Organization has released a nationwide poll on attitudes toward labor unions. While a majority of Americans still approve of unions, their support is close to an all-time low. And support for Right-to-Work laws is strong. According to the Gallup poll, 71 percent of Americans would vote...
The Illinois Policy Institute’s recent report on union spending focused on Illinois’ big, statewide public-sector unions, but there are lots of important locals that are misusing their members’ funds as well. One of the most interesting is Healthcare IL-IN, a Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, local that played a controversial role in organizing day-care...
Several of Illinois’ most influential government unions are wasting money on overhead and administrative costs. Workers aren’t getting their money’s worth for the dues they are forced to pay. But state-employee pay has more than doubled over the last decade or so, with lax attendance rules that actually reward workers for showing up late to work....
Laura and Sandy are small business owners in downstate Illinois. Because they receive state aid to care for low-income children, Laura, Sandy and 50,000 other Illinois day-care providers like them were forced by the state to join a union and pay dues. But in June 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a groundbreaking ruling in...
Nearly all government employees are forced to pay money to a union as a condition of keeping their jobs. And it’s not cheap. The forced dues can reach as high as $1,000 per year in the case of Chicago public school teachers. Union officials can count on hundreds of millions of dollars a year in...
Introduction It pays to work for state government. Compensation costs for state workers make up roughly one third of Illinois’ state budget. How much state workers are paid is largely decided by contracts with government employee unions, specifically Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Since 2003, two consecutive Illinois governors – now disgraced former...
As the start of a new school year approaches, Illinois teachers deserve to know their rights. That includes the right to join or not join a union, and the right to support or not support union politics as the political season in Illinois heats up. Teachers unions are one of the most powerful lobbying groups...
Aug. 11 marks the start of National Employee Freedom Week, when nonprofit organizations in 44 states reach out to workers across the country to let them know they have choices when it comes to union membership. Even in states that do not have a Right-to-Work law, such as Illinois, workers don’t have to join a...