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* My Crain’s Chicago Business column…
The Illinois General Assembly hasn’t been in session since March 5 because of the international COVID-19 pandemic.
Some legislators have passed the time posting recipes on social media. Some Republicans have lately been holding online press conferences demanding the supermajority Democrats and the Democratic governor do what they want.
A couple of House Republicans have filed lawsuits against Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order and have been rewarded with more publicity than they could’ve ever dreamed of.
A large number of legislators, however, have been diligently working on actually governing. Both chambers have set up “working groups” of members who are tackling issues like the budget, infrastructure projects, education, gambling, energy, etc.
Not all, but from what I can tell, the vast majority of working group members are doing their best to figure out how to deal with this crisis in difficult circumstances.
Some legislators have jumped head-first into community work. Rep. Mark Batinick, R-Plainfield, has been distributing face masks to first responders and even retail businesses. Batinick also spent days convincing Pritzker to impose a face-covering mandate in his revised executive order, which took effect May 1.
Freshman Rep. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, says she has over 350 factories in her district, and almost her entire focus throughout this crisis has been attempting to protect the health and safety of workers in those factories, many of whom are immigrants. Villa is the daughter of immigrants, and she recently told ProPublica Illinois that several people in her own life work for local factories, including a food-processing facility that was shut down by the Kane County Health Department after pressure from Villa and others.
When Villa first started hearing reports of problems at the factories, she says, she called her local mayors, health departments, the governor’s office and even the manufacturers themselves. “I was trying to figure out how to do this,” she tells me.
Click here to read the rest before commenting, please. Thanks.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
In the wake of a recently-reported death of a worker at Smithfield St. Charles from COVID-19, State Representative Karina Villa is calling for an immediate investigation into what Smithfield plant management did to protect the worker from getting sick.
“While the Governor’s office, the Attorney General’s office, IDPH, and county health departments have taken concrete steps to implement processes which keep workers safe at manufacturing facilities, we can’t ignore what has already happened to workers at these plants,” Villa said. “We keep hearing more and more about how negligent plant management has been to their employees at Smithfield and at other facilities. It’s disgusting.”
In light of recent reports that Latinos are now the most adversely affected by the spread of COVID-19 of any demographic group in Illinois, stopping the spread of COVID-19 in predominantly Latino essential workplaces is more urgent than ever before. While rules are being implemented to protect workers from further workplace malpractice, workers, especially Latino workers, need advocates in their corner.
“Latinos are dying in disproportionate numbers because factory owners and management can’t be bothered to care about the people who work for them. The Governor and IDPH have instituted a lot of rules which help these employees, but that doesn’t change what they have already had to go through. I will continue to work with the UFCW and all unions who represent essential workers to ensure that they are kept safe and hold those responsible for preventable disease spread and death accountable.”
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, May 4, 20 @ 9:17 am
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Previous Post: A new twist on the GOP’s circular firing squad
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People need governing from their reps now, not political games. The former will be rewarded, the latter, no so much.
Comment by PublicServant Monday, May 4, 20 @ 9:28 am
It should be noted that the distribution of masks had a requirement of liking and commenting on the reps facebook page as a condition of getting a mask.
perhaps batinick can work on convincing the mayor of shark ci…I mean plainfield, to cancel the villages upcoming events and festivals that they are still proudly announcing are still happening.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Monday, May 4, 20 @ 9:45 am
Good column overall, and I appreciate the insight into actions taken by legislators to assist their constituents during the pandemic. That said, drawing a comparison between legislators who post recipes on social media and those who file suits that fly in the face of public health struck me as quite unreasonable. Unless legislators are spending all of their time writing about chocolate chip cookies on Facebook, it seems quite innocuous to try to connect with their constituents that way.
Comment by Skokie Man Monday, May 4, 20 @ 9:59 am
==Batinick also spent days convincing Pritzker to impose a face-covering mandate in his revised executive order, which took effect May 1.==
He probably wishes you hadn’t wrote that, those kooks protesting with nazi signs can show up outside his district office just as easily as they can outside the JRTC
Comment by Lester Holt’s Mustache Monday, May 4, 20 @ 10:01 am
===He probably wishes you hadn’t wrote that===
Along the lines of wishing someone hadn’t wrote something, he’s much more likely to be wishing his treasurer of campaign committee wasn’t writing all over facebook in early March about how much of a hoax all of this is.
That same treasurer is also currently the township supervisor for plainfield township.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Monday, May 4, 20 @ 10:17 am
It’s nice to see that some legislators actually care about the health of their constituents.
Comment by JoanP Monday, May 4, 20 @ 11:20 am
=It should be noted that the distribution of masks had a requirement of liking and commenting on the reps facebook page as a condition of getting a mask.=
TheInvisibleMan you know this isn’t true. Not even in the slightest. His FB page on April 20th says, “We are giving 50 surgical masks to the first 20 restaurants who commit to having their employees keep their faces covered at work. They also get this cool poster!” Only giving masks to people who commit to using them kinda makes sense to me!
Please quit lying about the Representative. You do it often
Comment by NotfromPlainfield Monday, May 4, 20 @ 11:39 am