* Nothing from the governor’s office in a very long time. But quite a few Republicans are on this board…
The La Salle County Board overwhelmingly expressed its opposition to “right to work” laws by passing a resolution with a 23 to 2 vote.
Before the meeting, a crowd gathered outside of the Ottawa Knights of Columbus in support of the resolution. The meeting started about 15 minutes late as supporters of the resolution were filing through security after holding signs outside the meeting. […]
The lone “no” votes were from board members David Zielke and Charles Borschenius.
Before the resolution passed, Zielke argued it was a waste of taxpayer money to rent the Ottawa Knights of Columbus Hall to hold public supporters of a resolution that will ultimately have no impact on state legislators or Gov. Bruce Rauner.
* The Illinois AFL-CIO claims 250 people were in attendance. A pic…
* Meanwhile a group called Truth In Employment is running radio ads in Springfield. It appears to be backed by International Union of Operating Engineers Local 965.
*** UPDATE *** From the governor’s office…
Hi, Rich –
So nice to finally meet you yesterday!
Few updates… Stark County passed the resolution. In addition, both Woodstock, IL and Oak Brook Village, IL rejected Illinois Prevailing Wage rates. Oak Brook Village also passed a resolution in favor of repealing prevailing wage.
Take care,
ck
Interesting that they’re now turning to prevailing wage rates.
And it was, indeed, nice to finally meet “ck” in person yesterday.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 2:34 pm:
I miss “ck”.
I really do.
This is a fail of epic proportions. Embarrassingly sad.
- Frenchie Mendoza - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 2:35 pm:
Thanks!
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 2:35 pm:
===I miss “ck”.===
I actually just met her yesterday for the very first time.
A very pleasant person.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 2:38 pm:
I’d send over some cannoli but I’m afraid they would think its snark. lol
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 2:38 pm:
===I’m afraid they would think its snark===
Or poisoned.
lol
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 2:39 pm:
Or both!
- Precinct Captain - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 2:40 pm:
==Before the resolution passed, Zielke argued it was a waste of taxpayer money to rent the Ottawa Knights of Columbus Hall to hold public supporters of a resolution that will ultimately have no impact on state legislators or Gov. Bruce Rauner.==
So Zielke would not have voted in favor of a RTWFL resolution?
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 2:43 pm:
Rich,
High profile agency heads today at a meeting said you should work for the CIA with as much info as you gather and do an amazing job with your blog.
- okgo - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 2:47 pm:
Rich mans the Illinois desk.
- Tom Joad - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 2:53 pm:
You can only fit about 29 elected board members and another 50 members of the public in the room.
So 170 people would have had to wait outside the board room. Zielke and Borschenius would have deniedmany voters the expression of their opinion.
- Team Sleep - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 2:57 pm:
Rich - you just now met her?! Where do they keep her - in the broom closet?!
- Norseman - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 3:04 pm:
=== I actually just met her yesterday for the very first time.
A very pleasant person. ===
You mean she doesn’t have horns?
- John A Logan - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 3:23 pm:
Why anyone has taken up this resolution is still stunning to me. Do elected officials at the local level not follow whats going on at the State house? I guess the answer to that is obvious. This RTW insanity was doomed for the round file from day one. In the meantime its a political loser, and the governor has shown he is willing to let people walk out on limb and saw it off behind them. Just ask the St. Reps that voted present on the RTW resolution in General assembly. Can no one play this game anymore?
- Arthur Andersen - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 3:31 pm:
TS, the frat bros only invite the “little sisters” over to the frat house once or twice a month.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 3:37 pm:
===(now quite rare)===
Did Team Rauner back down from advocating for local “enterprise zones” because he no longer wishes to antagonize labor and the Democrats? Or was it because his effort was a failure that should never have been attempted?
- Charles Wilkins - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 3:42 pm:
When will Peoria, East Peoria, Washington and Pekin vote in the measure? The elected’s need to take a stand and let everyone know what they support and don’t support.
- Norseman - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 3:44 pm:
=== When will Peoria, East Peoria, Washington and Pekin vote in the measure? The elected’s need to take a stand and let everyone know what they support and don’t support. ===
If the elected officials there were smart, they’d ignore the resolution and do something more meaningful to their community.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 3:50 pm:
BTW- El Paso Illinois, population 2,600 and home to someone very near and dear to the governor, tabled the resolution.
- Tournaround Agenda - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 3:53 pm:
Ask your elected officials, Charles. From what they tell me in the Peoria area, there’s very little enthusiasm to even introduce any Turnaround Agenda resolutions. The major union presence is probably a factor.
- Precinct Captain - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 4:11 pm:
“Oak Brook Village”?
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 4:14 pm:
When they get 100% passage…
Same problem as before! Geez, this is not going to help.
- A guy - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 4:17 pm:
BTW, RTW is DOA almost everywhere. Prevailing wage is a much better argument. Not a winning one in the foreseeable future, but a better one.
- A guy - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 4:18 pm:
Yes. Village. Oak Brook Mall has not yet voted on this.
- Bill F. - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 4:20 pm:
1) I’ve never heard it called “Oak Brook Village.” This is a minor thing, but if the village of Oak Brook were downstate, someone would lose their you-know-what about that.
2) The median home price in Oak Brook is more than three-quarters of a million dollars - not exactly a profile in courage on the part of the Village Board, though I’d guess the pressure for please Rauner comes less from the 7800 citizen residents, and more from its corporate residents.
3) Ironically, as reported in the Rauner Tribute, er, Chicago Tribune, OB would lose some $365k under Rauner’s budget.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 4:28 pm:
IMHO, BVR is SOL on RTW. LOL.
Let us now move on to prevailing wage (aka, the Put Indiana Contractors to Work in Illinois Act) and never speak of right to work again.
Good riddance.
- Dirty Red - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 4:34 pm:
= A very pleasant person. =
My sentiments as well.
- Arthur Andersen - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 4:36 pm:
Bill F. I could be wrong being a hick downstater, but I think the Village of Oak Brook and Oak Brook Village are not the same thing, having owned some ground up there awhile back.
Can some locals help me out?
- scott aster - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 4:37 pm:
Rauner should go with prevailing wage and drop this right to work….and he should get off this term limit idea…that is just a stick in the eye to the people he is selling on change.
What is with this ex mansion pressers…must think it is WHITE.
- walker - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 4:42 pm:
RTW, which was never more than a cynical political tactic driven nationally, has been replaced by local relief from prevailing wage. At least the latter has some practical and fiscal substance to it. It’s worth debating.
- Liandro - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 4:51 pm:
@Bill F.,
OB was voting specifically on prevailing wage, which I’m sure costs them quite a bit. I don’t know that it costs them $365k this year; that would depend on whether they have major projects going.
I agree that calling them a “village” seems…inaccurate.
- Liandro - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 4:56 pm:
@Arthur,
Not sure this completely answers your question, but “Oak Brook” and “Oakbrook Terrace” are separate (but adjoining) municipalities.
- A guy - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 5:03 pm:
Artie, it is the Village of Oak Brook. Oak Brook Village is just a mis-characterization of the name. There are other taxing bodies there i.e. Park District, etc. Perhaps Oak Brook, Village simply identifies which entity, the municipal board.
- Chicago Hack - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 5:04 pm:
‘Oak Brook Village’ sounds like a assisted living center or a trailer park.
- NewWestSuburbanGop'er - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 5:09 pm:
The City of Berwyn approved prevailing wage at the city council meeting yesterday.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 5:13 pm:
Yes, abolish prevailing age and hire low ball companies will unskilled minimum wage workers and cut corners on materials to meet their low bids. You don’t save money if the project runs over and the quality is poor. Our roads and concrete work don’t last very long now.
- Wordslinger - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 5:57 pm:
Oak Brook passed right to work? For what?
Has there been some surge in unionized groundskeepers for polo pony fields and golf courses? Have tennis pros and day spa workers organized? Has Botox gone Bolshie?
- allknowingmasterofracoondom - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 6:15 pm:
Village of Oak Brook, City of Oakbrook Terrace. There, I fixed it.
Also, to Anonymous @ 5:13 - spoken like a true blue Union frat brother.
Are you saying the 98% of workers in the country who are not in a union only do crap work? I am not saying I am against unions but that statement is pure union hyperbole. I have seen plenty of well compensated union workers do crap work.
- Outside the Bubble - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 6:34 pm:
U of I just completed a study comparing free bargaining states, as Illinois is, and RTW states on road construction. The study found that on average to build a mile of road in a free bargaining state is $123,000.00 LESS than RTW states. The study states the difference is the training and efficiencies workers learn in the union apprenticeship programs. The various studies are available at the U of I Laboe Education website.
- Chicago 20 - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 6:41 pm:
Study after study says that removing Prevailing Wage standards will not save any money.
This falsehood has been pushed ALEC for a few years now and several States and universities and analyzed the effects of removing the prevailing wage standards.
All of the studies came to the same conclusion, there was NO savings.
It’s just another myopic Rauner canard to attack middle-class workers and to enrich his cronies.
Wronger is pushing for a boldfaced lie.
http://www.lsc.ohio.gov/research/srr149.pdf
http://news.illinois.edu/news/14/0102prevailingwagelaw_RobertBruno.html
http://www.ijbhtnet.com/journals/Vol_2_No_6_October_2012/1.pdf
http://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=construct_mgt_pub
Also there are many studies which say that prevailing wages are essential to grow the local economy and provide many additional benefits.
http://keystoneresearch.org/publications/research/benefits-state-prevailing-wage-laws-better-jobs-and-more-constructive-competit
http://cas.umkc.edu/economics/resources/prevailingwagestudy.pdf
Executive Summary
The attempts to repeal the prevailing wage law in Missouri are based upon the claim that repeal with save dollars on total construction costs and will bolster state and local budgets. In 2004, we conducted an in depth study of the impact of the repeal of the prevailing wage in Missouri. In 2004, we showed that the repeal of the prevailing wage statue in Missouri would not save dollars on construction costs but rather would result in a negative impact on families, taxpayers, and the state and regional economics in Missouri. Utilizing data from the F.W. Dodge Company on construction costs in the North Central States region, we update our previous report for the period 2003-2010 on the impact of the prevailing wage statute in Missouri. Our update of 2011 has shown that Missouri’s prevailing wage laws do not raise the cost of construction. Our examination of both the short and long-term effects of prevailing wage show positive and substantial impacts on construction workers, their families, other industry participants and their families, and state, county, and local revenue streams.
1. Opponents of the prevailing wage statute argue that the repeal of the prevailing wage statute would save dollars on construction costs and would bolster state, local, and county revenue streams.
Study Finding #1
The repeal of the prevailing wage statute would cost the residents of Missouri and their families between $300.3 million and $452.4 million annually in lost income.
The repeal of the prevailing wage statute would cost the State of Missouri between $5.8 million and $8.7 million annually in lost sales tax collections.
The repeal of the prevailing wage statute would cost the State of Missouri between $18.0 million and $27.1 million annually in lost income tax revenues.
The total economic loss due to the repeal of the prevailing wage law in Missouri would be a loss of income and revenue between $324.1 million and
$488.2 million annually.
- DuPage - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 6:59 pm:
@Arthur Andersen 4:36
Back in the 1960s I had friends that lived in an apartment building group the owner called “Oak Brook Village”. It was in the neighborhood of Peabody’s tomb. It was not in Oak Brook, and was not a Village. I think it was sold and renamed a couple of times.
- DuPage Dave - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 7:16 pm:
The agenda may not be what it once was, but hey, you’ve gotta hand it to Rauner for shaking up Springfield.
He may not end up accomplishing anything significant (time will tell), but people are good and shook up right now.
- Arthur Andersen - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 8:12 pm:
Folks, it’s Oakbrook Terrace I was thinking of. Thank you all for clearing it up for me. #OldAgeIsNotFun
On a boring day, I’ll regale you with the tale of how the Oakbrook Mall and the ground it sits on were owned by different parties for quite a few years.
- Norseman - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 8:43 pm:
AA, my favorite memory of Oakbrook Mall was going to Stan Mikita’s restaurant hoping to see Mikita. Hope tonight is a Blackhawk win.
- kissfan - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 8:44 pm:
What in the world could be near and dear to the Guv from El Paso?
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 9:30 pm:
One of the alderman
- Wordslinger - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 9:48 pm:
AA, was one of those owners a Butler by any chance?
Woof, Crawford got large between the pipes tonight!
- Eugene - Wednesday, Jun 10, 15 @ 11:46 pm:
Stark County, population 5,907. LaSalle County, population 112,183.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jun 11, 15 @ 12:36 am:
=== you should work for the CIA with as much info as you gather ===
Except they’re usually wrong.
lol
- VanillaMan - Thursday, Jun 11, 15 @ 6:56 am:
=== you should work for the CIA with as much info as you gather ===
What do you mean, should?
- Aldyth - Thursday, Jun 11, 15 @ 8:15 am:
Vanilla Man has already earned the Best Snark of the Day award.