* Gov. Bruce Rauner spoke recently at an Illinois Chamber function and talked about his collective bargaining proposal…

“And what some people say to me, ‘Well, you’re just trying to strip away collective bargaining.’ No, I’m not. I just want to do what Chicago has done, and Massachusetts has done and others. When it’s necessary to protect taxpayers, give the ability for you in each community to take something out of collective bargaining if it’s necessary.

“Chicago has done this for years. And when the Democratic super-majority says to me, ‘Governor, you’ve proposed that, that’s a violation of our core beliefs.’

“Well that’s baloney.

“You’ve done it for Chicago for years. You’ve taken school day out of collective bargaining. Length of school year out of collective bargaining. Outside contracting out of collective bargaining. And right now the mayor has asked that the teachers’ pension contribution get taken out of collective bargaining.

“Why does Chicago get that and Springfield doesn’t get that? Decatur doesn’t get that. Peoria doesn’t get that. What’s, what’s going on? It’s not fair. We should treat everybody the same in Illinois.”

This is a great argument. It is unfair for Chicago to have these exemptions that nobody else has.

* I just wish the governor’s rhetoric matched his actual proposal…

Prohibited subjects of bargaining. 


(a) A public employer and a labor organization may not bargain over, and no collective bargaining agreement entered into, renewed, or extended on or after the effective date of 
this amendatory Act of the 99th General Assembly may include, 
provisions related to the following prohibited subjects of collective bargaining: 


(1) Employee pensions, including the impact or 
implementation of changes to employee pensions, including 
 the Employee Consideration Pension Transition Program as 
set forth in Section 30 of the Personnel Code. 


(2) Wages, including any form of compensation including salaries, overtime compensation, vacations, 
holidays, and any fringe benefits, including the impact or 
implementation of changes to the same; except nothing in 
this Section 7.6 will prohibit the employer from electing 
to bargain collectively over employer-provided health insurance. 


(3) Hours of work, including work schedules, shift 
schedules, overtime hours, compensatory time, and lunch periods, including the impact or implementation of changes 
to the same. 


(4) Matters of employee tenure, including the impact of 
employee tenure or time in service on the employer’s 
exercise of authority including, but not limited to, any 
consideration the employer must give to the tenure of 
employees adversely affected by the employer’s exercise of management’s right to conduct a layoff.

* If the governor would propose a bill which gives suburban and Downstate schools the same options to limit collective bargaining as Chicago already has, then he’d have a much better argument, and we might be on the road to a deal.

To me, anyway, that would be a big Rauner victory. He’s right that it’s the fair thing to do, and he’s right that the Democrats have already agreed to these ideas for the state’s largest city.

So propose a freaking bill already and put the Democrats on the spot. Unless, of course, he doesn’t want a deal.