The Governor and Labor

Although Blagojevich is surely popular with union members in the state, some purely public sector workers and teachers are likely less happy with his performance, after several cuts, pension restructures, and more recently a quarrel with AFSCME over the splitting of the Department of Corrections. Coupled with the recent split in the AFL-CIO, leading to the creation of a new coalition called Change To Win, this mixed record with Illinois' most powerful labor unions could conceivably spell trouble in any primary fight.

Blagojevich's record with SEIU is excellent, to say the least; Executive Order 2005-1 granted collective bargaining rights to almost 50,000 home-based childcare providers, previously considered independent contractors who therefore had no standing under NLRA or state labor relations laws. This after an Executive Order in March of 2003 granting collective bargaining rights to 20,000 DHS/ORS home healthcare workers. Between these two orders, Blagojevich helped expand SEIU's membership rolls by 70,000 members. Needless to say, this took AFSCME by surprise.

The Teachers also have potential bones to pick, citing Blagojevich's pension restructures (See also this.) On the other hand, they sang the Governor's praises on his 2004 education reform initiatives, so go figure.

This isn't to say he's necessarily been playing favorites--his Picketing Bill of Rights earned an appearance by AFL-CIO president John Sweeney himself, and he signed the McKeon-Sandoval card-check bill, HB3396 (now Public Act 93-0444), which eliminated the NLRB-style process in union elections for public employees, allowing for simple card-check--if a union could get 50%+1 of a public sector unit on authorization cards or petitions, they would be the authorized representative of that unit. A pretty major piece of legislation, and one AFSCME appreciated.

Because of the AFL-CIO/Change To Win split, the sharing of political information not only becomes difficult, but possibly illegal. In an unopposed primary, this would hardly register--an organization like the Teachers would probably hold their nose and go through the motions, at the very worst, if not full-fledged support. With a viable contender in the primaries, who knows?

This is the very nightmare scenario many feared as the AFl-CIO split loomed. Unions versus unions in primaries is hardly something new, but rarely would it be so pronounced; there is the case of SEIU locals in New York endorsing Republican incumbent George Pataki, to the chagrin of many other in that AFL-CIO state body. You may also recall that much of the Illinois AFL-CIO endorsed Dan Hynes, while AFSCME and SEIU (and Teamsters Local 705) endorsed Barack Obama.

I don't foresee any union--AFL-CIO, Change to Win, whatever--endorsing anybody but Blagojevich. And I certainly can't see them helping Rauschenberg, Oberweis, or even Baar Topinka in the general election. But if unions help two Democratic candidates bloody each other in the primary, it may happen inadvertently.