(WJBC file photo)

By Mike Matejka

Governor Rauner is certainly shaking things up in Springfield, particularly with his decision this past Tuesday that state workers represented by a union no longer have to pay for union representation.

Here’s the part of shaking up I don’t understand.   The right to fair share payment is not an administrative ruling, it’s part of state law, duly passed by a previous General Assembly and signed by a Governor – a Republican, if my memory is correct.  Since when can Governors declare existing laws invalid?   I thought to change a law, one either had to go through the legislative process, or a court had to find that law invalid?   I did not know Governors had such far-reaching powers.

When Illinois passed a law recognizing that public employees had a right to organize a union, they included within that law a fair share provision.   If public employees – teachers, fire fighters, police, state workers – vote in a secret ballot election for union representation and the union wins a majority vote – that union is then entitled to negotiate for those workers.   It’s this quaint old concept called democracy – a vote and then majority rules – the same way Mr. Rauner became Governor Rauner.

I went and looked it up under state law.  Not to put one to sleep, but if one goes to the Illinois Statute books and looks up (5 ILCS 315/6) (from Ch. 48, par. 1606), paragraph lower case e, the law specifically says that if an Illinois public employee union is recognized as a certified bargaining agent, the union may, and I’ll emphasize the word may, negotiate with the employer a fair share payment by non-members.

What does that mean?   This fair share payment is common in both private and public labor law.  It means there are certain costs to a union in negotiating a contract and representing workers under that contract.  That cost, or share, of union dues, can be collected.  The portion of dues that goes for the annual picnic, a t-shirt for the Labor Day Parade or a political contribution, cannot be charged to a non-member.  

Now Governor Rauner, in his current mode of, “how can I attack workers’ organizations today and grab another headline,” had decided he doesn’t like that Illinois statute and has declared it inoperative.

Governors do not have the power to unilaterally declare laws void.  If Governor Rauner does not like that provision, have a legislator introduce a new law to replace it.  Or find a covered state employee who wants to challenge it in the court process.   This one is a double whammy by Rauner – not only is he declaring existing law illegal, but that law is currently operative in signed contracts.

Rauner make think he’s a take-over artist walking into a corporate suite, but no, he’s walking into a democratic process, which should be respected and upheld.

Mike Matejka is the Governmental Affairs director for the Great Plains Laborers District Council, covering 11,000 union Laborers in northern Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. He lives in Bloomington with his wife and daughter and their two dogs. He served on the Bloomington City Council for 18 years, is a past president of the McLean County Historical Society and Vice-President of the Illinois Labor History Society.

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