LEAD 300, the Illinois Education Association affiliate that represents public school teachers in Carpentersville Community Unit School District 300 schools, has called a strike this morning, and the district has announced that classes are cancelled. The main sticking point in the strike appears to be class sizes. In the last best offers for both sides...
Faint praise for a fainthearted resolution Much of Illinois politics has become a contest of wills between a political establishment that is prone to wishful thinking and government employee unions with worldviews that border on fantasy. House Joint Resolution 45, or HJR 45, represents the latest attempt to wrest control of state spending away from...
Q: I heard that Gov. Pat Quinn terminated the state’s contract with AFSCME. What just happened? A: The governor’s office announced that it was not going to continue to extend the contract with AFSCME Leadership Council 31. About 40,000 state employees that AFSCME represents are now working without a contract. Q: How did we get...
At the behest of a bankruptcy judge, Hostess Brands got a short reprieve from liquidation in the form of one final meeting between management and union officials. But with the mediation failing and no more meetings scheduled, the company’s 18,500 workers (about 1,400 of them in Illinois) are almost certain to lose their jobs. A...
When unions can’t work with employers in the private sector, companies go under. Hostess Brands Inc. is the most recent case in point, announcing that it will close its doors because of financial insolvency. Hostess has filed for bankruptcy twice since 2004, most recently this January. The company has an annual revenue of $2 billion,...
As Illinois moves closer and closer to the fiscal cliff, the next story to watch is the outcome of three days of workplace protests planned by the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Leadership Council 31. The protests are directed at the state of Illinois and Gov. Pat Quinn, and are expected to...
An interesting test for Illinois came in Michigan, where labor unions were largely defeated in a state that saw Democrats do well. Michigan voters rejected two union-backed ballot proposals that were intended to undo a string of labor-law reforms and cost-saving measures. The results confirm that the public in the upper Midwest is ready to rethink...
Like many school systems across the state, Geneva Community Unit School District 304 is likely to endure a teacher strike, but the result from the Geneva strike could be very different thanks to a team of about 20 citizen watchdogs who are keeping a sharp eye on the bottom line. The group, known as Geneva...
Overall, paid leave cost the state
While the teachers strike in Evergreen Park
Since 2010, the Illinois Policy Institute has been working hard to ensure local government transparency and accountability to taxpayers. With our Local Transparency Project, we’ve been pushing school districts to post employee compensation online. Employee compensation transparency is especially important when it comes time to negotiate collective bargaining agreements. Without transparency, it’s hard for citizens to...
Negotiations between the State of Illinois and District Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees are at a standstill.
After nearly a year of collective bargaining and a seven day strike, you have reached a tentative agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union.
Rahm Emanuel famously argued that