 A measure making its way through the General Assembly would sharpen
the definition of management positions for employees of the state's
constitutional officers. This change would immediately strip 196
people of their union membership, according to state Rep. Barbra
Flynn Currie, D-Chicago.Currie, the measure's sponsor, said that
96 percent of the state work force is currently unionized. That
number, which is continuing to creep upward, is too much, according
to Currie. Since 2002, the number of state employees in unions has
risen from 80 percent to its current level, according to Adam Braun,
deputy legislative director for Gov. Pat Quinn.
Currie said that has to change.
"I think you have collective bargaining, but you also have people
whose job it is to manage, whose job it is supervise, whose job it
is to see to it that at the end of the day the job gets done. I
think 96 percent unionized is too much, and if you look at the
petitions that are before the state labor relations board today, you
could end up with a state work force that is almost 99 percent
unionized," Currie said.
After the initial round of booting people from the union, the
state attorney general's office, governor's office and others could
petition the labor relations board to remove other employees from
the union if they are deemed management, according to Currie.
Blame former Gov. Rod Blagojevich for the high number of
administration workers joining unions, said Henry Bayer, executive
director for AFSCME Council 31, the state's largest public employee
union. Employees sought out the protection of unions because of poor
treatment by the Blagojevich administration, according to Bayer.
"Their work was not valued. They not only didn't get pay
increases, they got pay cuts, and they came flocking to the union(s)
seeking representation," he said.
Because the state work force was reduced under Blagojevich, many
employees who were once strictly managers began doing more
non-managerial tasks, leading to the current situation, according to
Bayer.
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Braun said the reason this move is being pushed during the
legislature's lame-duck session is because more than 700 senior
public service administrators applied in December to join a union.
The labor relations board has 120 days to give the thumbs-up or down
on their applications.
If the legislature is interested in having managers in state
government, it should adopt this measure, Braun said.
The measure was approved in an Illinois House of Representatives
committee Sunday afternoon. However, many of the representatives
voiced concerned about the measure, saying they wanted to have more
discussions on the House floor.
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By ANDREW THOMASON]
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