* Click here for the lawsuit and exhibits. Press release…

Illinois State University has been sued for violating state law by hiring replacement workers—commonly known as strikebreakers, or scabs—to break a two-week strike by more than 300 ISU building services, grounds, and dining services employees.

The suit was filed Tuesday evening in McLean County Circuit Court by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31, the union representing striking workers.

Plaintiffs include ISU students, the Normal Township supervisor, and the local union president who is an ISU building service worker.

From the lawsuit:

To gain leverage to “win” the strike, the University has contracted with companies that have hired temporary employees to cross picket lines and perform the work of the strikers. This action is illegal. It violates the 2004 amendments to the Employment of Strikebreakers Act, which prohibit employers from replacing strikers by entering into contracts with companies in the business of providing day and temporary labor. This lawsuit seeks to enjoin University officials from their illegal actions.

The state Employment of Strikebreakers Act provides that “No person shall knowingly … contract with a day and temporary labor service agency to provide a replacement for the employee, during any period when a lockout or strike is in progress.”

AFSCME has identified at least four private, for-profit companies with which ISU has contracted for strikebreakers—some at higher rates of pay than employees receive.

Plaintiffs want the court to issue a permanent injunction barring the University from violating the Strikebreakers Act.

“ISU refuses to negotiate. Instead, they’re breaking the law,” AFSCME Council 31 executive director Roberta Lynch said. “The university should return to the bargaining table and seek an end to this needless conflict.”

* From the lawsuit…

Plaintiff American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is on strike against Illinois State University (“ISU” or “the University”). For, a union and its members, a strike is always a “last resort,” because its members lose income when they are not working. For the University, however, the “cost” of a strike is not lost production (and lost income), it is the loss of services needed for regular operations.

* 820 ILCS 30/2…

No person shall knowingly employ any professional strikebreaker in the place of an employee, whose work has ceased as a direct consequence of a lockout or strike, or knowingly contract with a day and temporary labor service agency to provide a replacement for the employee, during any period when a lockout or strike is in progress. Nor shall any professional strikebreaker take or offer to take the place in employment of employees involved in a lockout or strike.

Nothing in this amendatory Act of the 93rd General Assembly shall be construed to prohibit the continued employment of a day or temporary laborer by an employer if the day or temporary laborer had already been assigned to work for the employer at the time the strike or lockout began.