Naperville City Council Takes A Pass On Supporting Rauner's 'Turnaround Agenda'

Caption: Organized labor has accused Gov. Bruce Rauner’s turnaround agenda of killing unions. | Rauner Facebook

Naperville City Council members took a pass on supporting Gov. Bruce Rauner’s plan to create “right to work” zones in Illinois through local referendums, but not before 600 union members staged a noisy demonstration outside the council chambers.

Union supporters encouraged the city council to reject part of Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda” to amend wage laws by creating right-to-work zones to help turnaround the state’s ailing finances, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The governor floated his agenda at the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference earlier this month, which was attended by Naperville’s outgoing Mayor George Pradel and City Manager Doug Krieger.

Rauner has called for such measures as tort reform, freezing property taxes, consolidating state divisions and introducing term limits for state offices.

Organized labor, however, has called the governor’s agenda to overhaul workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance and suspending prevailing wage regulations by creating work empowerment zones “union killing.”

The governor wants local voters to decide on right-to-work zones through local referendum.

Some council members said they did not have enough knowledge of the governor’s labor turnaround agenda to make an informed decision and decided to shelve it indefinitely until the new mayor and city council are sworn in on May 3.

Read the full report in the Chicago Tribune

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