The National Right to Work Foundation (NRWF) is defending a firefighter after he submitted enough signatures to decertify his union, local 73 of the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) in Carpentersville, Illinois.
Firefighter Nick Salzmann submitted a decertification petition to the Illinois Labor Relations Board (ILRB) seeking an employee vote whether to oust the SEIU under rules governed by the ILRB, but the union is trying to prevent a vote.
The SEIU controls all the contracts for part-time firefighters in Carpentersville.
“Under certain circumstances, you can vote out or ‘decertify’ your union, or replace it with a different union,” said the NLRB website, which generally conforms to Illinois law. “At least 30% of your coworkers must sign cards or a petition asking the NLRB to conduct an election.”
Carpentersville, Illinois firefighters collected enough signatures for a vote on whether to remove SEIU officials from their workplace, but union bosses, are now attempting to block the votehttps://t.co/tmD6I9qCuF
— National Right To Work Foundation (@RightToWork) January 10, 2022
NRWF contends that the union is attempting to block the decertifying vote by using an unrelated incident that happened after the petition to decertify was filed with the state.
In patronage-rich Illinois, where it’s often difficult to separate union officials from political officials, attempts to block a decertification vote is more common than it is nationally, said the NRWF.
“It’s… ridiculous that Illinois law permits union bosses to delay employee votes simply by accusing the employer of often-unrelated alleged wrongdoing, making employees’ free choice subordinate to union bosses’ thirst to remain in power,” said NRWF president Mark Mix.
The NRWF helps employees free themselves from unwanted union representation.
The University of Illinois at Chicago said the state is among the most corrupt in the country. That’s in part because of the close relationship between politicos in Illinois and union officials who control large war chest of campaign cash to finance elections.
