Illinois House Speaker pushes bill to allow the statehouse to unionize

Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch has filed a bill that would allow House and Senate legislative staffers the ability to unionize. It’s an extraordinary move given the House speaker isn’t usually one to carry his own legislation.

Welch says the issue is personal as his office employs nearly 200 people. “Legislative employees in the House and Senate have the right to organize and collectively bargain. It’s important that they have equal opportunity,” he said in an interview with POLITICO, ticking off workers in a range of departments that would be affected, from the janitorial crew to the law department.

The move comes as the nation is gripped by major labor disputes: The United Auto Workers union has been striking as the auto market faces a transition to greener vehicles, and Hollywood facing down the close of both a writer and actor's strike in an industry that has been disrupted by streaming. Democrats have been increasingly worried about exposure on their left flank when it comes to unions, with President Joe Biden joining the picket line Tuesday in Michigan.

Illinois Democratic lawmakers have a long history of supporting labor, but their Springfield staffs have never been allowed to form a union because current law prohibits it. That would change if Welch’s legislation is passed by the Democratic-led Senate and signed by Gov. JB Pritzker, who like Welch is a Democrat.

Welch has drawn criticism in recent weeks by some legislative staffers who said he wasn’t willing to sit down with them to talk about unionizing.

The speaker countered that his chief of staff and legal adviser were at the table and that he’s been in talks for months with fellow House speakers around the country about what they are doing.

Few other legislative houses have unionized, but California is in the process of seeing its legislative staffers go union, and New York is watching, Welch noted.

“These things take time, and I wanted to make sure we did thorough research. It needed diligent and thorough research. We did that,” Welch said.

What they want: The Illinois workers say union representation would protect them when they want to speak up and allow them to bargain for better wages.

With Welch behind the legislation, passage is all but assured in the Democratic-controlled House. Pritzker, who a few months backed the contract for AFSCME Council 31 state employees, has signaled he supports the legislative employees’ union efforts.

That’s a far cry from California, which took five tries before it was able to pass legislation earlier this month to allow staffers to unionize.