Politics
Under New Law, Illinois Employers Can’t Force Workers to Sit Through Anti-Union Meetings
After signing legislation aimed at curtailing the practice of what sponsors dubbed “captive audience meetings,” in which workers are required to listen to their employer’s religious or political views, Gov. J.B. Pritzker poses with the bill at the Illinois AFL-CIO's biennial convention in Rosemont on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. Pritzker is flanked by AFL-CIO's national president, Liz Shuler, and the state organization’s president, Tim Drea (left), and state Rep. Marcus Evans, D-Chicago (right), along with other proponents of the bill. (Hannah Meisel / Capitol News Illinois)
When housekeeper Latonia Marshall began working to organize her fellow hotel employees back in 2008, she said management would call mandatory meetings to discourage unionization.
“It was a lot of fear there,” Marshall said. “It was really difficult for us.”
Marshall, who sits on the executive board for Unite Here Local 1, said managers would also pull aside workers for one-on-one talks, “and have these conversations about why we shouldn’t become union, or what they could do for that person if they don’t want to join the union.”
Years later, the Blackstone Hotel in 2011 ratified its first contract with Unite Here Local 1.
In labor circles, meetings like those Marshall described are known as “captive audience” meetings — the thought being that workers feel captive, as if they have to attend or face punishment or firing.
Marshall said if this were to happen in the future, she wouldn’t be part of those meetings, thanks to a new law (Public Act 103-0722) called the “Illinois Worker Freedom of Speech Act.”
“I would have just walked out,” she said, “because I know there’s a law that says I didn’t have to be a part of it.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the law Wednesday during a convention for the AFL-CIO, a federation of unions. The law will take effect in January.
It forbids employers from disciplining or penalizing workers who don’t participate in meetings “if the meeting or communication is to communicate the opinion of the employer about religious matters or political matters.”
Anti-union information is considered a political matter.
“Workers want to work,” said state Rep. Marcus Evans (D-Chicago) the sponsor of Senate Bill 3649. “Workers don’t want to deal with nonsense at work.”
If an employee is compelled to attend a meeting or penalized for not going, that person has a year to file a civil lawsuit that could lead to winning compensation and reinstatement of a job.
Unions, their members and other workers can also complain to the state labor department. If an employer is found to have violated the law, the employer will be subject to a $1,000 penalty for each aggrieved employee.
Passing the measure had been a chief priority for the AFL-CIO.
“People go to work to work, not to be indoctrinated,” Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea said in a statement. “Now, workers will not have to choose between their livelihood and personal values when employers use mandatory meetings to advance their political and religious interests.”
Some Republican lawmakers criticized the law.
When the House debated it in May, state Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-Geneva) said federal law already protects workers from reprisal for their politics, religion, union affiliation and viewpoints.
“This is going a step further,” Ugaste said. “Some people establish their businesses are part of their religious beliefs or political beliefs. Or they do want to talk about unionization with their workers and we are now taking away another tool of what’s important to them.”
He pointed out the measure makes no exemption that would allow religious stores to talk about religion with their employees, even though that’s the basis of the business.
“We still have some companies that are going to be regulated that shouldn’t have to be,” Ugaste said. “I believe that this will eventually lead to nothing but a lot of litigation and cause our attorney general to spend a lot of time and resources in defending it.”
During the bill signing, Pritzker said when he took over from the “carnage” left by his predecessor, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, Pritzker and other Democrats “wasted no time in delivering for the hard-working people of this state,” and making Illinois the “most labor-friendly state in the union,” by replacing the “moribund leadership at the Department of Labor with leadership that actually prosecutes employers for violating labor laws.”
Contact Amanda Vinicky: @AmandaVinicky | [email protected]
