Bus drivers, paraprofessionals and food services workers at Rockford Public Schools will go on strike March 15 if a new contract is not reached soon. Employees who want to go to work can be punished by AFSCME Local 692. They can avoid union punishment by becoming fair share payers.

AFSCME Executive Director Roberta Lynch announced Feb. 23 that union members voted to authorize a state worker strike. But state workers have another option. By becoming a fair share payer, state workers can report to work during a strike without facing union punishment. Here’s what state workers need to know about fair share status.

With a strike looming, state workers should know they have another option: becoming fair share payers. Fair share employees receive all the benefits guaranteed in a union-negotiated contract, but the union cannot punish them for working during a strike.

Fair share payers cannot be penalized by a union for working during a strike. And the state has just made it easier for Illinois AFSCME members to become fair share payers.

SEIU spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on things clearly unrelated to the representation of union members.

Neighboring states have seen the light. Illinois needs to have its own Right-to-Work realization, or be left behind.

Unions say state law forces them to represent all government workers – even those who don’t want to belong to a union. The catch? That’s what unions asked for.