By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
If there’s anything parents have learned during Covid, it’s that Illinois’ teachers unions have all the power. Parents’ rights were consistently trampled when it came to school closings, Covid mitigations and curriculum issues like CRT and sex ed.
One reason why the public unions have so much power? Contract negotiations with public sector unions are all done in secret. Illinois is one of just 10 states to explicitly keep negotiations closed to the public. Forget taxpayers. Forget parents. Forget residents. They only get to find out what’s in a contract once it’s been ratified and signed. When it’s too late.
It’s all part of the collection of public sector collective bargaining rules that make Illinois unions some of the nation’s most powerful. It’s also a good example of why Illinois’ collective bargaining regime must be rolled back.
Take the most recent case of closed-door bargaining in Illinois. On Thursday, WAND reported that the Decatur Public Schools and the local teachers union, the Decatur Education Association, reached a tentative agreement for a new, four-year contract. Typical labor agreements lock-in guaranteed salary increases, salary spiking, new benefits, additional perks, workplace conditions, and more, for several years.
But here’s the interesting part of the Decatur story, as reported by WAND:
“Neither the Board nor union leadership are releasing any information about the agreement at this time. That is to honor the bargaining process until a finalized deal is ratified and approved.”
What about honoring the rights of taxpayers to know just what they’ll be paying for and for parents to know how and what their children are being educated?
Parents should be particularly concerned given the efforts by teachers unions to inject more explicit sexual education and CRT into education. Thanks to Illinois’ expansive definition of what can be bargained, the union could demand control or increased influence over the district’s curriculum.
We’ve already seen unions use their power to control a variety of district policies. A good example of this is how local unions influenced New Trier HSD 203’s Covid mitigations through an unelected, union-dominated “advisory board.” The advisory board meetings, by the way, were closed to the public.
Contract negotiations nationwide
As mentioned above, Illinois is one of just 10 states that explicitly make contract negotiations secret. That’s according to a 2019 50-state analysis of collective bargaining laws by the Commonwealth Foundation.
In contrast, 15 states, including Florida, Texas and Minnesota, mandate that negotiations must be open to the public.
Twenty-five other states either give the option for negotiations to be public or say nothing on the matter.
And there are a few states that fully prioritize the rights of ordinary residents over the powers of public sector unions. North Carolina and South Carolina outlaw public sector collective bargaining altogether. (Another 4 states, Georgia, Alabama, Texas and Arizona, specifically outlaw collective bargaining for teachers.)
Yes, Illinois needs to bring contract negotiations out of hiding. But Illinois unions derive their powers from far more than just a lack of transparency. They also have the power to bargain over not just salaries, but over almost anything. They have the power to strike and can force arbitration using unelected officials. And union members have the benefit of guaranteed multi-year contracts and constitutionally protected pensions.
That’s far more power than the ordinary Illinoisans who are forced to pay for all those benefits will ever have.
It’s time to roll those powers back.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Nine things Gov. Pritzker didn’t tell you about Illinois’ 2023 budget
- Petitioners Will Seek Term Limits Again For Chicago
- Current Progressive Agenda Is Relieving Harm From Past Progressive Agendas
- Illinois needs a multiyear restructuring plan to stop residents from fleeing
- Rahmaan Barnes asks: What will you paint on your life’s canvas?
- Four reasons why the state pension buyout program is problematic for taxpayers
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.
This is OUTRAGEOUS!!
Glenview/Skokie just added some child grooming pedophile crap to their schools too.
So the people actually footing the bill are explicitly omitted by law, sweet. I’m indifferent to union deals in the private sector. But the thought of any unions at all in the public sector is abhorrent. Because that corrupts the two main currencies of government, dollars and votes. To specify by law that those deals are secret right up until the point of signing the contract… is like codifying corruption itself into the law. I guess this law basically makes corruption legal!
The Open Meetings Act does not apply to school district collective bargaining negotiations per the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act (IELRA), meaning per law the public in Illinois cannot sit and watch the negotiations as they occur. The law would have to be changed to allow the public to watch the negotiations. But I do not believe there is anything preventing any school board member or administrator from releasing negotiation details to the public, even if the information was obtained in a closed session meeting. Edgar County Watchdogs has written that board members can release details obtained in closed session.… Read more »
“The public is just used to being bullied and tricked by the school board, administration, lawyers, and unions.” Yep, exactly correct. Rauner’s negotiations with AFSCME are illustrative. The union packed the rooms where those “private” negotiations were held with enthusiastically disruptive union members, and used a compliantly sympathetic legacy media to bombard the public with whatever the unions wanted to claim was occurring in their “private” negotiations. Of course, Rauner made a point out of going public with many of the union’s antics, which angered the unions no end, and did much (but not enough) to solidify public opposition to… Read more »
Bruce Rauner, 7 foot of stupid!
Of course not, no way the taxpayers should see the mafia (teachers union) in action stealing billions from them for the 3rd worst schools in the USSA!
just another slap in the face by Ill politicians to non public union Illinois taxpayers…the usual
If Governor Tax Cheat, the “Political Class” (elected-n-appointed of both parties), and the predatory public employee unions had even the slightest intention of not continuing to shove big sweaty wads of taxpayer money into each other’s pockets, they wouldn’t have all rushed to put Amendment 1 on the November ballot. What’s truly venal about all this is that AFSCME, SEIU, CTU, et al, are using our tax dollars to bribe legislators into continuing to spend money that should be going to their unsustainable pensions on “other stuff” for votes. When’s the last time you read about an Illinois public employee… Read more »
All the more reason why we can’t pass Amendment 1, more truthfully known as the Right to Collective Bargaining Act. Please vote against it or mandated unions with no oversight will put the final nail in the coffin of Illinois.
All the more reason why you must leave Illinois. Leave Illinois before the thieves in Springfield take everything else from you. They have already taken enough money that ten generations could not repay. Through Covid they took your freedom and constitution. Vote !? Lol. They took your vote too
All the more reason for not voting for Amendment 1 if you happen to be one of those people who for personal or financial reasons can’t leave Illinois at this time.
Then go vote. Also, what you are really saying is “Illinois is better for me than another state.” Do you really believe that? Illinois is not even better than California or New York so you could literally choose any other state and be better off. I challenge you to look up the definition of slavery. Then examine the relationship between the Illinois government and its citizens. The politicians of Illinois crap on the state and federal constitution. But you go vote and that will help.
It is just about time to question the constitutionality of public employees’ unions. Getting paid by the public money should be a service. If one does not like it, the whole private sector is open. We have labor laws that are sufficient to protect any labor abuse cases. If teachers or policemen believe that they are underpaid, they should appeal to the public, which then would elect representatives supporting better pay for public servants. By definition, everything should be public when it comes to public employees.
And they should NOT be paid more than the private sector funding them!
Union reps take the contract back for union members they represent to review and ratify, but the school board can’t even show taxpayers what they agreed to before the contract is signed. I get that the board represent the taxpayers and you don’t want the taxpayers voting on contracts, but shouldn’t the public at least see the terms first?
Every once in awhile a board presents the terms to the public during negotiations and prior to the board vote. I don’t recall a board presenting the entire tentative agreement prior to a board vote. Even then the taxpayer would want the change document that highlights the exact changes between the current and proposed agreements (typically underlined text for additions and stricken text for deletions). The public should be able to vote on the cba. Why should the union have the upper hand. The union members like to portray themselves as public servants. The servants have more power than the… Read more »
I do not believe there is anything preventing a taxpayer friendly board from posting a tentative collective bargaining agreement for public review prior to the board voting on the contract. Let’s look at what happens now. The current standard practice is the union members vote whether or not to ratify the collective bargaining agreement (cba) aka the contract, before the tentative cba goes to for instance the school board for a school board vote. Are the union members allowed to review the cba prior to the union vote? Regardless, not just the union cba negotiating committee, but also the union… Read more »
Ilinois voters-“derr,i love democrats,im gonna ALWAYS vote fore democrats,derr-mopes and dopes,ya get what ya vote for,so here ya go dummies
Illinois taxpayers are:
A) fools
B) leaving
It’s A or B. Your choice.
B is the only choice, the sooner the better.