By: Mark Glennon*
They’re at it again to muzzle speech they don’t like.
Both houses of the Illinois General Assembly passed Senate 3649 that will ban employers from discussing “religious or political matters” at meetings where worker attendance is mandatory. We wouldn’t want workers to hear the perspective of their employer, now, would we?
Violations will be punishable with fines up to $1,000 per employee.
Employers routinely hold meetings to educate their workers about political matters that impact their business, products, taxes, foreign trade and more, and they obviously should have the right to do so.
Tim Drea, president of the Illinois AFL-CIO labor and a supporter of the bill, says employees “go to work for a paycheck and to make a profit for the employer, period not to be indoctrinated by anyone’s religious or political beliefs.”
No, Mr. Drea. Employees should also go to work thinking about teamwork — about supporting what’s good for the company. No employee can be forced to accept an employer’s position, but they should be expected at least to hear that position and consider supporting it.
Here’s a funny part: While the bill has some exceptions for certain nonprofit organizations, there is none for 501(c)(3) organizations like Wirepoints. Countless 501(c)(3) nonprofits like us research and advocate for policy positions of all kinds. That’s what we do. We meet discuss those political matters constantly. Illinois thinks they could bar us from making those meetings mandatory? Good luck.
At least six other states have passed or are considering similar legislation and some are already being challenged in court on First Amendment grounds. Court challenges are likely to Illinois’ bill as well if Gov. JB Pritzker signs it. We’d like to see him follow Democratic Colorado Governor Jared Polis, who recently vetoed a similar bill over the free speech issue, but we expect Pritzker will sign the bill.
This has become a pattern for Illinois progressives: They thumb their noses at the First Amendment and make somebody sue to get their rights recognized, as you can see in the examples we’ve written about before, linked below. In the meantime, however, free speech will already have been squelched. As JD Supra wrote about the Illinois bill, “some employers will be intimidated by it and may just ‘stay quiet.’”
Aside from the free speech issue, the bill is another reason for employers to find a different state.
“Democracy dies in silence.” That’s the headline on a Wall Street Journal editorial criticizing the bill, and it’s true.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Some or our earlier columns on Illinois’ indifference to the First Amendment:
- University of Illinois, it’s your turn to eliminate woke DEI loyalty oaths
- Illinois ‘anti-doxing’ bill becomes law – the latest attack on free speech
- Let The Government Censor Away Through Agents It Controls, Say Kwame Raoul And Cabal Of A.G.s To U.S. Supreme Court
- Illinois Attorney General Raoul surrenders in free speech case, but tries to hide it
- An important lesson from Chicago on confronting the enemies of free speech
- Scorching court opinion posted: Federal judge ridicules ‘stupid’ Illinois abortion ‘misinformation’ law and Attorney General Raoul
- Gov. JB Pritzker’s new assault on free speech
- Two ‘Compelled Speech’ Matters Beg For Litigation In Illinois
- Rep. Jan Schakowsky leading new charge to bully big tech into more censorship
- The Capitol Building, Illinois And The Suppression Of Political Dissent
- Illinois Senators Durbin and Duckworth Are Among The Book Burners Happy With Big Tech Censorship
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
I assume this means all public schools and universities in the state
You would assume wrong – the indoctrination will continue!
I didn’t vote for Pritzker, or any other Democrat, nor would I ever. Look what they have done to Chicago and the rest of the state. For some perverted reason, Illinois has chosen to compete with California and New York in a “RACE TO THE BOTTOM”.
The Illinois General Assembly and the AFL-CIO support a law that prevents the indoctrination of employees but promotes the indoctrination of children on topics like sex, abortion, and socialism, even over parental objections. Meanwhile, they neglect teaching children to read or do math at grade level. This is a glaring example of the hypocrisy in our state leadership.
2 goals, largely achieved: Crater Illinois property values so that political insiders with family bank connections can buy real estate up on the cheap using massively leveraged other-peoples’-risk-capital. Retain enough peasants to serve this regime, including many professionals whose work often requires critical thinking and ethical codes (nurses, cops, soldiers, e.g.). Work product of such as these can now largely be obtained only under duress. 1 is pretty un-defendable. They win, they won, but then ask yourself: do you want to stay here and serve them? Defending against 2 requires that winners have some knowledge of how blowjobs work: when… Read more »
Sounds good, just as long as the bill includes unions, especially those representing public employees. Lol
Excellent point but will never happen.
So Ford can’t have a meeting mentioning “climate change” and how it relates to the miserable failure of their EV’s in the marketplace? “climate change” is essentially a religion and a political idea wrapped in one, and EV’s are kind of like a savior. Any speech should be allowed to happen even in companies, there may be repercussions, but that’s the eternal price of free speech we all pay. Any Ford employee should be free to ask why “climate change” “sustainability” and “DEI” is driving their manufacturing decisions to the detriment of the shareholders. Of course, this is the kind… Read more »
All kinds of crazy examples are easy to think of. For instance, maybe you’ve seen the leaked video of one of Google’s “all hands” meetings. Most everything they talked about was politics — how they can use their tech and power to push woke agenda.
It goes beyond meetings which employees can just choose to ignore. What is happening now is companies put these ideas into mandatory training. Not keeping up with your schedule of mandatory training videos is grounds for firing. Typically these videos are for sexual harassment policy training, intellectual property policy training, factory safety training, ladders, electrical, moving machinery, fork lifts, etc. These videos end with a quiz, and you’ve completed the requirement. But recently my company requires in-depth DEI training, with a quiz. Climate change and sustainability, with a quiz. etc.
Employers cannot compel anyone to listen to political views at a mandatory meeting. In this country, people are still free to leave and seek employment elsewhere if they don’t like the atmosphere of their current employment.
The underlying assumption here is that people are entitled to their jobs, and having been hired can then dictate terms to the employer. We all know what group thinks they are entitled to their jobs. We all know who will jump out in defense of this bill. Already started in the comments here.
Wire Points does the very same thing as the State of Illinois to me all the time.
Alas, the state does not stop those who try to blanket public discussion with repetitious idiocy.
Communist China does the same thing.
Will they be overturned on appeal? Increasingly the appellate courts are headed far, far left in both the state and federal courts. There are no guarantees any more. We all thought for sure the gun grabber law would be overturned, yet here we are.
Pritzker and the Leftist Democrats love tyranny for their political opposition. Tyrannical mindset and as stated by WP, they know it will be overturned on appeal but they go ahead with their tyranny anyhow. The Leftist Democrats want to totally tear up the Constitution. Never seen anything like this in America before.
I wish they would tear up the state constitution and get us back on a course of free choice, ethical government and financial responsibility.
Like so many other bills, this bill is tailor made for $Trail Lawyer Ass$. What is defined as a “religious” matter? What is defined as a “political” matter? The bill doesn’t apply just to employees declining to attend “employer or the employer’s agent, representative, or designee” meetings, but also applies to extremely open to interpretation to employees “declines to receive or listen to communications” from “employer or the employer’s agent, representative, or designee”. I assume a “communication” could be interpreted as something as simple as any one of a zillion junk emails on company computer that employee (and their lawyers)… Read more »
Just an idea in jest (or maybe not?)!!….With what seem to be Illinois # 1 growth industry–$litigation$, as Illinois is, I believe, #1 lawyer lawsuit friendly/ #1 legal “hell whole” state . The state should possibly look into taxing the lawyers legal fees winnings from this bill as well as BIPA, GIPA, ec,etc…as a possible way out of Illinois fiscal mess.
Why not, they tax everything else in the state. It could could replace the Chicago casino losses they hoped for.
Does this mean that when employers decide to move to another state (or go out of business) they can’t tell their Illinois employees it’s due to Dem socialist taxes and laws?
Yes, absolutely. Nor could they discuss whether they were even considering that for such reasons.
They could tell them just not at a mandatory meeting. The employer can still utilize free speech they just can’t compel someone to listen to them. This law clearly goes too far by not allowing companies and organization to talk about things related to their organization. Surely a political advocacy group should be allowed to discuss politics. A publisher of religious books certainly should be allowed to discuss religion. A fry cook at a fast food restaurant shouldn’t be compelled to listen to his managers views on abortion. I’m sure once all the dust has settled with various lawsuits, we… Read more »
Replacing the words prospects and prospect with Taxpayers makes more sense from JD Supra (wrote about the Illinois bill) subsection. Pursuant to the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), unions not only DO NOT have an obligation to share key information to prospects, they can also lawfully mislead workers and provide them with false information while making promises that they cannot possibly follow through on. Treating prospective members like mushrooms is quite effective — telling the prospect everything they want to hear and leaving out the ugly details is often a winning strategy. Educating the prospect fully, directly and honestly is… Read more »
I have intimate knowledge of the UAW, and yes they do not care if their actions reduce jobs or close plants – Getting the agreement they insist on is all that matters. UAW rank and file are mere pawns for the Bosses. To me this is the main case for ‘Right to Work’, to protect those who do not want out-of-town and out-of-state Bosses and Leftist Democrats telling them what to do.