Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner signed an executive order forbidding state employees from being forced to financially support unions, saying it was a matter of protecting the workers’ First Amendment rights.
The action effectively applies a right-to-work law to Illinois employees and is a blow to the state’s public-sector unions.
“[E]mployees of the state of Illinois must not be forced, against their will, to participate in or fund public sector labor union activities to which they object,” Rauner said in the executive order, which requires state agencies to cease collecting fees from workers’ paychecks and giving them to unions.
In Illinois, as in most states, public-sector unions typically have clauses in their contracts requiring all employees in a workplace to pay a fee to the union regardless of whether they have joined. The fee is supposed to help cover the union’s expenses in collective bargaining on behalf of the employee.
Critics of the system like Rauner argue that is unfair to the employees because it puts them in the position of being obligated to fund an entity that engages in politics they don’t support and gives them virtually no say in the process.
“[A] public-sector labor union unilaterally determines the so-called ‘fair share’ fees to be paid by those who choose not to be members of the union,” Rauner’s executive order stated.
Rauner added that the system was corrupting, telling the Chicago Tribune that “government union bargaining and government union political activity are inextricably linked,” and that the fees were a “critical cog in the corrupt bargain that is crushing taxpayers.”
The order, issued Monday, is certain to be a blow to the unions that represent state workers. After Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker instituted similar reforms in 2011, the state branches of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees experienced drastic declines in membership and dues.
The AFL-CIO labor federation declared Rauner to be the “newest anti-worker governor” in a posting on its website. AFSCME Council 31, which represents 31,000 state employees, called the executive order a “blatantly illegal abuse of power” that it would seek to overturn in court.
“It is crystal clear by this action that the governor’s supposed concern for balancing the state budget is a paper-thin excuse that can’t hide his real agenda: silencing working people and their unions who stand up for the middle class,” said Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch.
Rauner’s executive order heavily cited last year’s Supreme Court case, Harris v. Quinn, which said that state-subsidized home healthcare workers were not state employees and therefore the state could not enter into a collective bargaining contract on their behalf.
“[T]he Supreme Court in Harris ruled that such ‘fair share’ provisions served no compelling state interest; and … a majority of the Supreme Court also questioned the legal and factual bases of Abood’s ruling that public-sector employees may be compelled to pay ‘fair share’ fees, calling the analysis in Abood ‘questionable on several grounds’ and labeling the decision ‘an anomaly,’ ” the order stated.
Abood v. Detroit Board of Education is a 1977 Supreme Court precedent that said that public-sector employees could subjected to union ‘fair share’ fees. Prior to the ruling, there was speculation that Harris v. Quinn would overturn it, but a split 5-4 court issued a much narrower ruling.
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Harris v. Quinn‘s lead plaintiff, Pamela Harris, applauded the governor’s executive order.
“During the five years that Harris v. Quinn was pending, I came to see the damaging relationship between the public sector unions and our elected officials,” Harris said. “Gov. Rauner has taken steps today to return accountability to us, the taxpayers of Illinois.”
