Illinois Executive Order Limits Public Sector Unions

Author: David B. Weisenfeld

February 13, 2015

Newly-elected Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner has issued an executive order to bar unions from requiring all state workers to pay the equivalent of union dues. This order affects an estimated 6,500 state employees who are not union members but have paid fees instead of union dues.

The development is significant in that it continues the trend across the Midwest of states taking a strong stance against unions. For instance, Michigan became a right-to-work state in 2012, prohibiting employers in both the public and private sectors from being required to join a union or pay an agency fee to a union as a term or condition of employment. Iowa and Indiana also are right-to-work states. And, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels ended collective bargaining by state workers by executive order.

While Illinois is not a right-to-work state, the executive order is notable in that it follows up the US Supreme Court's 2014 ruling in Harris v. Quinn. In that case, the Court held 5-4 that home health care workers could not be required to pay union fees and essentially created a new category of public employees.

In his executive order, Governor Rauner said, "An employee who is forced to pay unfair share dues is being forced to fund political activity with which they disagree. That is a clear violation of First Amendment rights - and something that I am duty-bound to correct."

He also filed a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of Illinois against more than a dozen labor unions anticipating that they would contest his decision. In the suit, Rauner asks that the court declare his executive action valid and find the mandated payment of these union fees to be unconstitutional.

The unions claim that Rauner erred in bypassing the state's legislature, which is controlled by the Democrats. In addition, the Illinois Comptroller and Attorney General both said they will refuse to follow the governor's action without a court order.