Report Shows Illinois Union Participation Declining Despite Growth In New Petitions
‘State of the Unions’ study shows public sector unions shrink following 2018 Janus decision
By Jerry Nowicki Capitol News Illinois
SPRINGFIELD – Overall participation in labor unions has declined in recent years in Illinois, although the state has seen an increase in successful unionization efforts for the second year in a row.
That’s according to the State of the Unions 2024 report, the latest installment in an annual review of unionization in Illinois and the U.S. by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the University of Illinois’ Project for Middle Class Renewal. ILEPI is a nonprofit research organization with a board of directors that’s closely tied to organized labor.
The study found that Illinois saw 86 successful union petitions in 2023, up from 67 the year before. Those are the two highest totals in a 10-year period dating back to 2014. The prior eight years
Fireworks light the sky on the last night of the Taste of Melrose Park on Sept. 1
Stakeholders Still Working On Cannabis System’s Flaws
New entrants to Illinois’ marijuana market still struggle against entrenched businesses
By DILPREET RAJU Capitol News Illinois
Medical marijuana patients can now purchase cannabis grown by small businesses as part of their allotment, Illinois’ top can-
nabis regulator said, but smaller, newly licensed cannabis growers are still seeking greater access to the state’s medical marijuana customers. Illinois legalized medicinal marijuana beginning in 2014, then legalized it for
PAPPAS
UNION
Rates declining
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ranged from 25 to 62 successful petitions.
“When you see a couple of positive years where you’re seeing growth in in numbers, it does suggest that there’s some change in the labor market, there’s some change in worker attitudes, there’s some change in the strategy of union organizers,” Robert Bruno, a report co-author and director of the Project for Middle Class Renewal said in an interview. “It all suggests a positive turn.”
The successful petitions led to 4,399 additional workers being unionized in 2023, down from 9,497 in 2022.
“That’s from coffee shops to hospitals to cannabis producers to top-ranked universities,” said Frank Manzo, a report co-author and economist with ILEPI, said. “You know, private and nonprofit workers successfully organized dozens of workplaces, showing that the labor movement is gaining traction in new and emerging industries.”
Despite the increase in private sector unionization efforts, the percentage of Illinois’ workforce that is unionized dropped below 13 percent for the first time in the 10year period surveyed. At 12.8 percent, Illinois had the 13th-highest unionization rate among all states. A total of 707,829 people in Illinois were unionized in 2023, down from nearly 847,000 in 2015.
The public sector unionization rate has declined by a total of 4.1 percentage points since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision in Janus vs. AFSCME, from 52.1 percent to 48 percent. That ruling put an end to public sector unions being able to charge fees to individuals who benefit from union representation but choose not to join the union.
Those fees, often referred to as “fair share” fees, helped unions better negotiate wage and benefit structures for all employees, regardless of whether they are part of the union. Without them, Manzo said, unions are required to represent those individuals without compensation.
“It is true that the most significant contributor to the declines in Illinois’ unionization rate has been drops in worker bargaining power in the public sector that was sparked by
a 2018 Supreme Court decision,” Manzo said.
Another contributor to union participation decline is that the economy has added jobs in sectors with “low union densities,” like management, professional services, e-commerce and the gig economy, he said. At the same time, careers with long-standing union ties, such as mining and manufacturing, have either grown more slowly or “been lost altogether,” he said.
But he added that other states, including many surrounding Illinois, have enacted “right-to-work” laws, which create “Januslike conditions” in the private sector.
Illinois’ Workers’ Rights Amendment – an amendment to the state constitution that was approved by voters in 2022 – “effectively bans those so-called right-to-work laws from ever coming to the state,” Manzo said.
“And the data show that states that protect workers rights, like Illinois, have higher wages, faster wage growth and stronger unions compared to those that have weakened collective bargaining rights,” he said.
While Illinois’ unionization rate was 12.8 percent in 2023, nearby states that have rightto-work laws – Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky and Wisconsin – had rates ranging from 7.1 per-
cent to 8.8 percent.
Average hourly earnings in Illinois were $36.82 in 2023, compared to rates of $28.82 to $31.84 in the four neighboring right-to-work states, although Illinois’ cost of living is generally higher than in those states, which don’t have a city comparable to Chicago’s size. Illinois’ wage growth from 2017 to 2023 was an average of 4.6 percent higher than those four states, based on the study’s review of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Current Population Survey data. Unionized Illinois workers earn about 12.6 percent more than non-union workers, per the same analysis.
The study found Black workers, men, military veterans, and workers with master’s degrees have the highest unionization rates in Illinois.
Nationally, the U.S. added 135,000 new union members in 2023, following a gain of 277,000 union members in 2022, according to the report. Unions are also seeing near record-high support, with 67 percent of respondents viewing them favorably, per a Gallup poll cited in the report.
“Despite dealing with an economy in transition and facing considerable legal challenges, unions are organizing new industries and improving job quality,” Manzo said.
While private sector unionization rates have fallen by 1.7 percentage points since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Janus decision in 2018, public sector unionization rates fell by 4.1 points in that span. Public sector unionization remains near 50 percent.
CANNABIS Equity lagging
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Patients can purchase marijuana as part of the medical cannabis program at dualpurpose dispensaries, which are licensed to serve both medical and recreational customers. But dual-purpose dispensaries are greatly outnumbered by dispensaries only licensed to sell recreationally, and there are no medical-only dispensaries in the state.
As another part of the adult-use legalization law, lawmakers created a “craft grow” license category that was designed to give more opportunities to Illinoisans hoping to legally grow and sell marijuana. The smaller-scale grow operations were part of the 2020 law’s efforts to diversify the cannabis industry in Illinois.
Prior to that, all cultivation centers in Illinois were large-scale operations dominated by large multi-state operators. The existing cultivators, mostly in operation since 2014, were allowed to grow recreational cannabis beginning in 2019.
Until recently, dual-purpose dispensaries have been unsure as to whether craft-grown products, made by social equity licensees –those who have lived in a disproportionately impacted area or have been historically impacted by the war on drugs – can be sold medicinally as part of a patient’s medical allotment.
Erin Johnson, the state’s cannabis regulation oversight officer, told Capitol News Illinois last month that her office has “been telling dispensaries, as they have been asking us” they can now sell craft-grown products to medical patients.
“There was just a track and trace issue on our end, but never anything statutorily,” she said.
No notice has been posted, but Johnson’s verbal guidance comes almost two years after the first craft grow business went online in Illinois.
The graphic shows how cannabis grown in Illinois gets from cultivation centers to customers.
Regulation Oversight Office “desperately” wants to see changed. Johnson said Illinois is a limited license state, meaning “there are caps on everything” to help control the relatively new market.
“It’s like they almost set up the social equity thing to fail so the big guys could come in and swoop up all these licenses.”
STEVE OLSON Purchasing manager
It allows roughly 150,000 medical patients, who dispensary owners say are the most consistent purchasers of marijuana, to buy products made by social equity businesses without paying recreational taxes. However – even as more dispensaries open – the number available to medical patients has not increased since 2018, something the Cannabis
Berwyn Thompkins, who operates two cannabis businesses, said the rules limited options for patients and small businesses.
“It’s about access,” Thompkins said. “Why wouldn’t we want all the patients – which the (adultuse) program was initially built around – why wouldn’t we want them to have access? They should have access to any dispensary.”
Customers with a medical marijuana card pay a 1 percent tax on all marijuana products, whereas recreational customers pay retail taxes between roughly 20 and 40 percent on a given cannabis product, when accounting for local taxes.
While Illinois has received praise for its equity-focused cannabis law, including
through an independent study that showed more people of color own cannabis licenses than in any other state, some industry operators say they’ve experienced many unnecessary hurdles getting their businesses up and running.
The state, in fact, announced last month that it had opened its 100th social equity dispensary.
But Steve Olson, purchasing manager at a pair of dispensaries (including one dualpurpose dispensary) near Rockford, said small specialty license holders have been left in the lurch since the first craft grower opened in October 2022.
“You would think that this would be something they’re (the government) trying to help out these social equity companies with, but they’re putting handcuffs on them in so many different spots,” he said. “One of them being this medical thing.”
Olson said he contacted state agencies, including the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, months ago about whether craft products can be sold to medical patients at their retail tax rate, but only heard one response: “They all say it was an oversight.”
This potentially hurt social equity companies because they sell wholesale to dispensaries and may have been missing out on
a consistent customer base through those medical dispensaries.
Olson said the state’s attempts to provide licensees with a path to a successful business over the years, such as with corrective lotteries that granted more social equity licenses, have come up short.
“It’s like they almost set up the social equity thing to fail so the big guys could come in and swoop up all these licenses,” Olson said. “I hate to feel like that but, if you look at it, it’s pretty black and white.”
Olson said craft companies benefit from any type of retail sale.
“If we sell it to medical patients or not, it’s a matter of, ‘Are we collecting the proper taxes?’ That’s all it is,” he said.
State revenue from cannabis taxes, licensing costs and other fees goes into the Cannabis Regulation Fund, which is used to fund a host of programs, including cannabis offense expungement, the general revenue fund, and the R3 campaign aiming to uplift disinvested communities.
For fiscal year 2024, nearly $256 million was paid out from Cannabis Regulation Fund for related initiatives, which includes almost $89 million transferred to the state’s general revenue fund and more than $20 million distributed to local governments, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.
CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS ILLUSTRATION BY DILPREET RAJU
Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024
10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Triton College Botanical Gardens (East Campus)
Enjoy a variety of autumn-themed activities and games designed for all ages! Families are welcome to take home a free pumpkin (while supplies last). The event is free and open to the public. Visit triton.edu/fallfest for continued updates.
CRAFT SALE
WESTCHESTER COMMUNITY CHURCH is seeking crafters and/or vendors for the CRAFTERS / VENDORS / TREASURES AND TRINKETS SALE, Saturday, November 16th, 2024 from 9:00 a.m. –2:00 p.m. This established 20 year Church Craft Sale includes homemade crafts made by the church members, Treasures and Trinkets tables, and a Raffle. We are selling a space with a table for $30.00. (If you wish to have two tables the cost is $50.00.)
The table(s) is 2 1/2 ft. by 8 ft. and includes 2 chairs. Limited electrical outlets on a first come first serve basis. Contact Westchester Community Church, 1-708-865-1282, if interested or have any questions.
To reserve a space, a non-refundable fee of $30.00 ($50.00 for two tables) needs to be paid by Monday, October 28th. If reserving a space on or after Tuesday, October 29th the cost of the table will be $35.00 ($55.00 for two tables).
PUBLIC NOTICES
PUBLIC NOTICE
Notice is hereby given, pursuant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: G24000416 on August 28, 2024 Under the Assumed Business Name of THE UPRIGHT JOURNEY with the business located at: PO BOX 8023, WESTCHESTER, IL 60154. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/partner(s) is: MICHELLE MUHAMMAD 10240 W. ROOSEVELT RD #8023 WESTCHESTER, IL 60154.
Published in Village Free Press September 4, 11, 18, 2024
Berkeley Park District will be hosting a Public Informational Meeting regarding OSLAD Grant application as related to Berkeley Park improvements will be held at Berkeley Park located at the NW intersection of Taft & Electric Drive in Berkeley, Illinois, on Wednesday, September 11, 2024 @ 4:30-6:00 pm. Park District residents are welcome to stop in and view the preliminary plans for the park and information related to the OSLAD Grant application that can reduce the cost of this project by as much as 50%. For further information, please call the Berkeley Park District at 708-544-1935. Published in Village Free Press September 4, 2024
Notice is hereby given, pursuant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: G24000353 on July 25, 2024 Under the Assumed Business Name of JEM LAW ADVOCATES, P.C. with the business located at: 2620 WELLINGTON AVENUE, WESTCHESTER, IL 60154. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/partner(s) is: TISHAUNDA MCPHERSON 2620 WELLINGTON AVENUE WESTCHESTER, IL 60154. Published in August 21, 28, September 4, 2024
