The Illinois Policy Institute’s recent report on union spending focused on Illinois’ big, statewide public-sector unions, but there are lots of important locals that are misusing their members’ funds as well. One of the most interesting is Healthcare IL-IN, a Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, local that played a controversial role in organizing day-care...
As early as tomorrow, the U.S. Supreme Court could announce its decision in the case Harris v. Quinn. Legal experts and unions across the country are closely watching this case because it could be a landmark decision on the issues of unionization and freedom of speech. The lead Plaintiff, Pam Harris, is a suburban Chicago...
As early as today, the U.S. Supreme Court could announce its decision in the case Harris v. Quinn. Legal experts and unions across the country are watching closely as it could be a landmark decision on the issues of unionization and freedom of speech. The lead plaintiff, Pam Harris, is a suburban Chicago mom whose...
In 2003 and 2009, governors Rod Blagojevich and Pat Quinn, respectively, issued executive orders to unionize parents who receive a modest Medicaid benefit to help pay for the cost of caring for their disabled children. Suburban Chicago mother Pam Harris has bravely taken this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court in what could be a...
The Chicago Tribune recently reported on the links between the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, and various community organizing groups behind the campaign to increase Chicago’s minimum wage to $15 per hour. In her story, reporter Alejandro Cancino found that SEIU and its affiliates had spent at least $2 million on a campaign to organize...
Pam is a mom in northern Illinois whose son, Joshua, needs constant care because of a rare genetic syndrome that causes severe intellectual and developmental disabilities. Pam receives a modest subsidy from a Medicaid-waiver program that allows her to stay home and take care of Joshua. She isn’t a state employee; she just gets a...
What are you thankful for? We’re thankful for people like Pam Harris who stand up to the government when it threatens their rights. Pam is a mom in northern Illinois whose son, Joshua, needs constant care because of a rare genetic syndrome that causes severe intellectual and developmental disabilities. Pam receives a modest subsidy from a Medicaid-waiver...
Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois-Indiana is the largest union local in Illinois, but that’s not the only thing about this union that is interesting. The local also has an alarming number of agency fee payers, or workers who are covered by a union contract but who refuse to join the union formally. Instead, they...
A look at self-reported government union spending reveals budgets fraught with waste. Unions exist to represent workers, so that’s where the bulk of their money should go. Yet among the state offices of the four largest government worker unions, the portion of spending that goes to representation ranges wildly, from nearly $0.60 out of $1...
Chicago’s $1.15 billion projected budget gap is the latest in a decades-long string of structural deficits. Making Chicago’s high taxes worse is not the solution.