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employers. This one is already being challenged in courts," Walters said.
For years, the Illinois' Strikebreakers Act prohibited employers from hiring a "professional strikebreaker" - defined by
the Illinois Assembly as "any person who repeatedly and habitually offers himself for employment on a temporary basis, where a
lockout or strike exists, to take the place of an employee whose work has ceased as a direct consequence of such lockout or
strike."
But now, the expanded version of this law prohibits employers from hiring any individuals referred from a temporary
employment service, according to Thomas E. Berry, Jr., partner in the law firm of McMahon, Berger, Hanna, Linihan, Cody &
McCarthy.
"For example, a grocery store whose workers have gone on strike is no longer able to hire temporary replacements via any
third party, such as an employment service," he said.
The federal government's view, historically from a labor policy perspective, Berry said, is to let the free market - not
the government - resolve these situations.
Caterpillar Inc. has already filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Peoria to protest the latest version of the state's
Replacement Act legislation. Berry said a number of the company's union contracts are up in early 2004.
Another piece of legislation, House Bill 3396, which has been in effect since Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed it into law Aug.
5 (Public Act 93-0444), amends the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act and the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act.
The crux of the amended language is this: public and education-specific employers in Illinois no longer have the secret
ballot-style election as a means of assembling or disassembling a union comprised of some of their employees.
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"Even federal law still requires an election before a union is regarded and certified as being the exclusive bargaining
unit," said Berry. "Before this law took effect in August, a union would have had to prove at least 30 percent of that
workforce wanted to be represented by a union. If the employer didn't want to be represented, he could schedule a secret
ballot election."
Prior to the passage of this law, Berry said, both sides - union and management - could lobby the employee as to whether or
not he wanted to become part of a union specific to his trade.
An element of irony exists, he said, in that private employers are still governed by federal law - law that states the
secret ballot method still applies. But for public employers in Illinois, this law signed by the governor (and sponsored by
state representatives and senators not from Southwestern Illinois) trumps federal law.
An example of where the new state legislation could hamper both public and private employers would be an instance in which
a privately held company buys a publicly owned firm or an educational institution, Berry said. The new owner, although
privately held, will have to abide by Public Act 93-0444, having to go through a comprehensive desertification process in
order to disband any of the unions that were in effect at the time of the buyout.
"Gov. Blagojevich appears to be signing legislation that makes the process more expedient for the unions," Berry said. "The
irony is that this is actually not a (two-sided) desertification process. If we're trying to be expedient, wouldn't the
process work both ways? Democracy - via the employees' secret ballot provision - has been eliminated under the guise of
expediency."
editor/publisher: Kerry Smith
email: ksmith@ibjonline.com
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