Pro-union Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch is facing pressure from members of his legislative staff, who say he is blocking their attempt to unionize.
The Illinois Legislative Staff Association released a statement saying that for nine months Welch has denied requests to discuss his employees request to unionize, which the group points out is an apparent contradiction to his public pro-union statements.
In May 2022, Welch called Illinois, "the most labor friendly state in the country", and claimed "Illinois will always be a state that stands up for workers' rights. The freedom for workers to join together in unions is a fundamental right that should always be protected."
Welch backed last year's Workers' Rights Amendment, which was signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker. The law was added to the state constitution, making it a fundamental right for workers to collectively bargain and join a union
Two days after First Lady Jill Biden spoke at a Labor Day rally in Chicago sponsored by the Chicago Federation of Labor, which Welch attended, the Illinois Legislative Staff Association issued a statement saying the House Speaker should "practice what he preaches."
"Our good faith efforts to engage with the [Welch] and his aides have been either rebuffed, redirected, or met with stubborn disregard. When we have been acknowledged at all, we have experienced runaround, muddied waters and other thinly-veiled tactics aimed at undercutting our ability to organize and bargain collectively. The speaker, through his aides, has made it abundantly clear that he intends to delay indefinitely in hopes that we will give up and go away. We will not. We have the legal right to form a union. If there was any doubt of this before, that doubt was removed by the passage of the Workers’ Rights Amendment. Equal protection under the law is a fundamental American value, and the right to organize is the law of the land in Illinois. Speaker Welch should not be able, with impunity, to say one thing in public—when it costs him nothing—while doing the opposite behind closed doors."
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