CHICAGO (CN) — A prominent conservative Illinois think tank filed a federal lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Labor on Thursday, hoping to block the state's new Worker Freedom of Speech Act.
Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the act into law last week, though it does not take effect until 2025. It prohibits employers from subjecting their employees to mandatory "captive audience" meetings. Employers use these mandatory meetings to denounce unionization to employees, often when a union drive is underway or when management fears one may be imminent.
Union leaders and sympathizers have heaped scorn on the meetings for decades. When Pritzker signed the new law banning them in Illinois last week, state AFL-CIO President Tim Drea called them "a direct violation of workers’ rights" in a prepared statement.
The conservative Illinois Policy Institute nevertheless argues in its lawsuit that the new law infringes on its own free speech rights. The act's primary intent is barring mandatory anti-union meetings, but its language more broadly prohibits employers from foisting their positions on "religious or political matters" on workers. The Institute says this prohibition bars it from carrying out its central lobbying mission.
"The Institute regularly conducts mandatory staff meetings at which the organization’s views on questions of public policy are expressed," the Institute writes in its complaint. "The act now makes those meetings unlawful."
The nonprofit has been...
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