Committee President to Trump: Don't Put Anti-Right to Work Congresswoman in Charge of Your Labor Department
The following letter was sent to President Trump by National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix on November 20th, 2024.
Illinois's Powerful Government Union Bosses a 'Major Stumbling Block' on State's 'Path to Reform'
Last Friday, Standard & Poor announced its latest downgrading of forced-unionism Illinois’s fiscal status. The Prairie State now has an S&P credit level of A-, putting it in a tie with Big Labor-controlled California for 49th in the country. But Illinois’s negative outlook gives it the lowest overall S&P rating in the country. The Moody’s bond-rating agency also ranks Illinois 50th among the states.
In an editorial today, Investor’s Business Daily charges that Illinois politicians’ unwillingness to stand up to Big Labor is a key reason why their state has become “America’s Greece”:
While neighbors like Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan have either challenged the unions on pension reform or embraced right-to-work to encourage the economic growth to fund them, Illinois remains in thrall to big labor.
A major stumbling block on the path to reform has been the state’s powerful public employee unions.
We Are One Illinois (WAOI), a group that represents more than 1 million state workers, has formed to fight any reforms, even while the state’s pension costs rise at a rate of $17 million per day.
The state will spend $5.9 billion on the pension system in fiscal year 2013, which ends in July 2013, and will spend nearly $7 billion in FY 2014.
The Standard & Poor’s report warns that further inaction could lead to downgrading Illinois to “BBB,” an “unusual” low rating for any state.
The agency noted a “lack of action on pension reform and upcoming budget challenges could result in further credit deterioration.”
