Illinois Issues

By DOUGLAS KANE

VOL. I, NO. 3/MARCH 1975

ILLINOIS ISSUES is an independent publication whose publisher/editor is selected by a responsible to a board appointed by thepresidents of Sangamon State University and the University of Illinois. The magazine is financial daily assisted by a grant from the Ford Foundation and support from the universities as well as by Illinois donations and income from sale of subscriptions. The publisher/editor is an alumnus of the University of Illinois and a member of the faculty of Sangamon State University, but the contents of the magazine do not necessarily reflect the views of either university, the Ford Foundation, of other donor.

Publisher/editor: William L. Day
Assistant editors: Caroline Gherardini,
J. M. (Mike) Lennon

Business manager: William J. Geekie
Secretary: Louise Herndon

The Board Samuel K. Gove, University of Illinois, Urbana, Chairman
William W. Alien, Illinois Agricultural Association, Bloominglon
Richard E. Carver. Mayor, Peoria Robert C. Gibson, Illinois State Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, Chicago
Philip Kendall. Sangamon State University Springfield
Mrs. Randall Nelson, Carbondale
Odas Nicholson. Lawyer. Chicago
James D. Nowlan. Knox College, Galesburg
James T. Otis. Lawyer. Chicago
Theodore Peterson. University of Illinois, Urbana
Honorable Samuel H. Shapiro, Lawyer, Kankakee
Chris Vlahoplus. Sangamon State University, Springfield
James M. Wall, The Christian Century, Chicago
Samuel W. Witwer, Lawyer, Chicago
William L. Day. ex officio member

ILLINOIS ISSUES is published monthly (12 times per year).

Editorial and business offices: 226 Capital Campus. Sangamon State University, Springfield, Illinois 62708. Telephone: (217) 786-6536.

Subscription rate; $15 a year/$27 two YEARS/40 three years. $1.50 individual copy.

Application la mail at second-class postage rates is pending at Springfield. Illinois.

The other 49

The Bureau of the Census has issued a report, Management-Labor Relations in State and Local Government (vol. 3, no. 3 of the 1972 Census of Governments), showing that for the United States as a whole 50.4 per cent of all full-time employees of state and local governments belonged to employee organizations in October 1972. Organizations concerned included not only those coming under the traditional concept of labor unions but also professional or occupational associations such as National Education Association, American Association of University Professors, and American Nurses Association.

The corresponding statistic for Illinois was 45.2 per cent. In seven states more than 60 per cent of employees were organized:
California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. In an additional 15 states, 45 per cent or more belonged to employee organizations: Alaska, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Here is how the percentage of full-time public employees organized in Illinois compared with the national average by type of employing government:

State
Local governments
Counties
Municipalities
Townships
School districts
Speicaldistricts
U.S.
40.8
53.9
39.0
54.5
51.6
62.1
33.1
ILL
43.4
45.7
26.6
30.1
1.6
55.5
59.5

Here is a comparison by functional area of employment (again, percentage of full-time employees rganized):

Teacher
Other education employees
Highways
Public welfare
Hospitals
Police protection
Fire protection
Sanitation other than sewerage
U.S.
69.5
31.4
46.0
45.1
41.7
55.6
76.5
50.1
ILL
60.8
35.6
38.2
21.7
67.1
44.7
65.4
50.3

Between October 1971 and October 1972 there were 381 work stoppages nationwide in state and local governments. These involved 130,871 employees and resulted in 2,705 workdays idled. School districts, nationwide, had the largest number of work stoppages, 152, and the greatest number of workdays idled, 1,231. For Illinois state and local governments there were 29 work stop-pages involving 6,619 employees and 120 workdays idled during this period. Work stoppage issues were:

Salaries and wages
Hours of work
Fringe benefits
Recognition of organization
Grievance dispute
Other
U.S.
219
4
11
20
16
111
ILL
17
__
1
3
__
8

Methods of resolution were:

Injunction
Mediation
Compulsory arbitration
Voluntary arbitration
Fact finding
Other
U.S.
33
104
2
17
27
198
ILL
2
7
__
__
4
16

The situation in Illinois is changing fast, at least at the state level, as Reginald R. Ankrom notes in his article, "What is organized labor going to do for state employees?" beginning on page 72.

State labor relations laws
At the time of the survey, Illinois and 12 other states had no public sector labor relations law: Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia. Arkansas permitted collective negotiations for public employees under its constitution, but had no law. North Carolina did not allow the state or local government to enter into a contract or memorandum of understanding. Texas forbade recognition of employee organizations for purposes of meet-and-confer discussions or negotiations. Illinois still has no law, as Mr. Ankrom notes.

66 /Illinois Issues /'March 1975