Governor Favors Allowing Each County To Choose Its Status
Over the past several years, the right-to-work
playing field has altered radically in the Midwest. Until three years ago,
among Illinois’ neighbors, only Iowa was right-to-work. However, since then,
Indiana and Michigan adopted right-to-work laws, while Wisconsin is expected to
do so shortly. Kentucky is experimenting with allowing counties to choose their
own status, while right-to-work legislation is advancing in Missouri. That
leaves Illinois the odd man out in the neighborhood.
However, Gov.
Bruce Rauner (R) is launching a push to keep his state competitive with its
neighbors. While he doesn’t back making the state as a whole right-to-work,
something not likely to happen given the strength of unions in parts of
Illinois, he does back altering the law to allow individual counties to
determine their own status. In a speech on Monday, Rauner said, “I’m not
advocating that Illinois become a right-to-work state. We don’t need to do that
and I don’t want to do that, I don’t advocate that. But I want you to be able
to decide. One other county or Springfield shouldn’t tell you what you have to
do.”
What Happens Next:
So far, it appears
unlikely that Rauner’s proposal will make much headway in the Illinois
legislature, where Democrats have veto-proof majorities in both chambers.
However, that could change as Illinois finds itself isolated as the only state
that isn’t right-to-work, and businesses begin to vote with their feet. Former
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) told one Illinois media outlet that many have
told him that they won’t open an operation in states without right-to-work laws.
Daniels added, “A lot of companies that don’t really want to talk about it
publicly are perfectly explicit about talking about it in private.”
Additional Reading:
The Telegraph
(IL), WLS-TV, an editorial in the Chicago
Tribune,
and George F. Will in his column for the Washington
Post all
report on the issue.
