SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - The Illinois Legislative Staff Association, which represents employees of the Illinois General Assembly including the House of Representatives as well as District offices, has released a statement on Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch not recognizing their union.
In the statement, the ILSA said:
“We are the Illinois Legislative Staff Association. For the last 9 months, we have asked in good faith for Speaker Welch to meet with us. Despite his outspoken pro-labor rhetoric and vocal support for the right of all employees in Illinois to unionize, he is apparently intent on denying this right to his own staff. “It should not be controversial in 2023 for a group of workers in a blue state with a strong union tradition to form a union, especially when the right to organize is enshrined in the state constitution. Speaker Welch himself has publicly referred to Illinois as ‘the most labor friendly state in the country’. In May 2022, he said, ‘Illinois will always be a state that stands up for workers' rights. The freedom for workers to join together in unions is a fundamental right that should always be protected.’"
“Only eight months ago he publicly referred to efforts to undercut the labor movement as ‘extremist’, and yet that is precisely what he and his aides are now doing. “All we are asking for is for the Speaker to hold to his own avowed convictions when it comes to his own staff, whose work behind the scenes enables the General Assembly to function. “The attempted justifications so far given for the Speaker’s refusal to acknowledge or meet with us do not hold up to scrutiny. The Speaker has the power to recognize us voluntarily at any time. Despite this, on the Speaker’s behalf, his aides have disingenuously claimed that ‘voluntary recognition denies [our] colleagues the right to a democratic election.’ Given that we have significantly more than the required number of signatures, this doesn’t make sense. Of course, we would welcome an election, but the Speaker’s team has not followed through with that proposal either.
“Our good faith efforts to engage with the Speaker and his aides have been either rebuffed, redirected, or met with stubborn disregard. When we have been acknowledged at all, we have experienced runaround, muddied waters and other thinly-veiled tactics aimed at undercutting our ability to organize and bargain collectively. The Speaker, through his aides, has made it abundantly clear that he intends to delay indefinitely in hopes that we will give up and go away. “We will not. “We have the legal right to form a union. If there was any doubt of this before, that doubt was removed by the passage of the Workers’ Rights Amendment. Equal protection under the law is a fundamental American value, and the right to organize is the law of the land in Illinois. Speaker Welch should not be able, with impunity, to say one thing in public—when it costs him nothing—while doing the opposite behind closed doors. “He should practice what he preaches.
“ILSA will continue advocating on behalf of legislative staff until we are heard and our concerns are meaningfully addressed. Speaker Welch and his aides should stop their charade and sit down with us in the same good faith that we have consistently demonstrated. If he meant what he told the people of Illinois, then he should work with us to reach an agreement that works for everyone.”
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