Henry Bayer: Don't trust Quinn on anti-union bill

Gov. Pat Quinn could strip collective bargaining rights from as many as 2,000 state employees who now have union representation and deny those rights to at least 1,700 more who may want to exercise them when he signs a bill approved by the Illinois Senate.

Senate Bill 1556 will impact employees of every constitutional officer and the State Board of Elections, and sets a dangerous precedent that opens the door to taking union rights from other public-sector workers as well.

The final hurdle to this anti-worker, anti-union measure was a procedural hold invoked by Sen. Don Harmon. Regrettably, that hold was lifted, an action Harmon sought to explain in a State Journal-Register guest column (?Rebalancing the state workforce,? Jan. 9).

Harmon said SB 1556 ?is not ?Scott Walker-esque.?? That may be true as a matter of scale ? with the stroke of a pen, Quinn?s measure will take bargaining rights from or deny them to nearly 4,000 state employees, while Walker stripped such rights from tens of thousands. But something that?s ?less bad? can still be far from good.

Taking basic rights away from working people is an extreme and undesirable step. Collective bargaining, after all, is simply the right of men and women to join together to achieve common goals like fair treatment and better working conditions through a voice on the job. That right flows from fundamental American freedoms like the freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

There is scant evidence to support Harmon?s claim that the number of employees who are union members has a negative impact on the operations of state government. To the contrary, individuals with some supervisory responsibilities, such as majors and lieutenants in the Department of Corrections, have been union members for years without any adverse consequences, and most workers who will lose rights under SB 1556 have even less such responsibility or none at all.

It?s undeniably true that Quinn has proven a poor manager of state government. But the blame should be placed on the qualifications and judgment of the governor himself and the top staff he has hired, not whether certain employees saw fit to join a union.

The real causes of dysfunction and disruption to state services include Quinn?s hostility to state employees and his constant demoralizing attacks on their pay and pensions, closures and layoffs that destroy jobs and rob agencies of the staff and resources they need to meet their missions and the excessive overtime, out-of-control caseloads and dangerous working conditions that result.

We are skeptical that Quinn wants this bill for any other reason than removing the protections of the union contract from thousands of state employees, making them more susceptible to political pressures or outright replacement with political hires as the 2014 election looms. Don?t forget that Quinn got his start in government as a patronage operative in Dan Walker?s administration.

It?s important to note that, under current law, employers have always had the right to challenge before the Illinois Labor Relations Board any petition filed by workers seeking to form or join a union. And most of the positions now threatened by Quinn?s measure were contested, by either the Blagojevich or Quinn administration. In every case, the board found that the workers in question had a right to bargain collectively; otherwise they would have not been included.

Harmon says he cushioned the legislation?s blow by extracting certain promises from Quinn. But those promises, such as not cutting employees? salaries once they lose their union rights, were items our union tried to secure in the legislation before it passed. If Quinn were willing to do those things, why did he refuse to put them into the bill?

We fear the senator?s faith is misplaced. After all, Quinn has refused for 18 months to pay wage increases earned by and owed to 30,000 state workers, despite court and arbitrator?s orders to do so. And in November, Quinn became the first Illinois governor ever to terminate a union contract. After all that, why would anyone take Pat Quinn at his word?

Henry Bayer is executive director of AFSCME Council 31.

Source: http://www.sj-r.com/opinions/x1665862295/Henry-Bayer-Dont-trust-Quinn-on-anti-union-bill

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