* From the governor’s office…

Good Morning, Rich!

The following communities have passed the resolution:

Lincolnshire
Watseka
Iroquois County

In addition, the Naperville Chamber of Commerce and the Naperville Development Partnership also passed the resolution.

Best,
ck

* No local updates appear on the Illinois AFL-CIO’s Facebook page today, but there is this…

* Meanwhile, Greg Hinz talked to DCEO Director Jim Schultz…

(T)he DCEO [private development agency] plan is part of Rauner’s wider agenda to reform tort law, cut back on workers’ compensation insurance and aid to the unemployed, allow local communities to ban union shops, and reduce the power of public-sector unions.

Asked what ranks highest on that list, Schultz replied: “All of it. There’s no rank order.” Pushed a bit, he seemed to suggest that the privatization idea is his personal priority, but termed the other items “all the same.”

More than 1,100 companies “blacklist” Illinois because it has no right-to-work law, Schultz said, declining to name any of the 1,100.

I’d like to see that list, but it’s true that some manufacturers won’t consider locating to a non-RTW state…

In a move that’s surprising to some, Volvo recently announced that it’s establishing a new factory outside of Charleston. The Swedes are following the growing trend of foreign automakers setting up shop in the South, making it a growing manufacturing center in the U.S.

The new Volvo facility will cost about $500 million to build. When the factory is finally operational, it will roll out about 100,000 vehicles annually and employ about 4,000 people in the area. Ground is set to be broken in the fall, with the first wave of vehicles expected to roll off the assembly line in 2018. […]

The new Volvo factory will build vehicles for the North American market, plus other areas of the world. Many manufacturers have been drawn to the South because of right-to-work laws that have diminished the power of labor unions.

* I think AFSCME is going to have a real problem with this issue during negotiations…

A coalition of state and national business groups hopes to deliver a death blow to organized labor in Louisiana, pushing an anti-union bill that would ban automatically deducting membership dues from the paychecks of government workers. Unionized firefighters, police officers and teachers would be among those affected.

*** UPDATE *** Tom Kacich…

While Gov. Bruce Rauner is urging local governments to establish local “right to work zones,” where workers wouldn’t have to join a union and pay dues as a condition of employment, the Champaign County Board is looking into a new level of cooperation with labor unions on construction projects.

The concept — called a “local economic growth initiative tripartite” — is scheduled to be discussed at a county board committee of the whole meeting at 6:30 p.m. today at the Brookens Administrative Center. […]

(T)wo county board Democrats who are promoting the agreement say it’s meant to benefit the county, which is facing several million dollars’ worth of construction programs in the future.

Urbana Democrat James Quisenberry said the initiative — which involves the county, contractors and unions on projects of over $100,000 — builds on existing agreements.

“In a project labor agreement, you not only commit to the prevailing wage and working with the local trades on a project, but they turn around and give you assurances against work stoppages and strikes,” Quisenberry said. “This is going to come off as a response to Rauner and ‘the turnaround agenda’ because that’s about right to work and getting out of collective bargaining arrangements, and this is about committing more to those, but I think it’s a reality of our county that we tend to be more supportive of labor.”