Chicago ‘Right-to-Work Zone’ Suburb Settles Two Union Lawsuits

November 21, 2016 
By Steven Wishnia and Neal Tepel

Lincolnshire, IL – The Chicago suburb of Lincolnshire has settled two lawsuits against the “right-to-work” ordinance it enacted last December, but a federal-court challenge is still pending.

The village board approved a deal Nov. 14 in which International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 will drop its state-court challenges to the procedures used to enact the law, including one saying that the board denied opponents the right to make comments at a public hearing. In exchange, the Liberty Justice Center, the anti-union litigation group defending the ordinance, will pay $10,000 to two Local 150 members who attended that hearing. Lincolnshire was the only town in the Chicago area to follow Gov. Bruce Rauner’s urgings and ban union shops at private employers. State Attorney General Lisa Madigan declared last year that such local bans are illegal, because under federal law, only states can enact such laws. Four Chicago-area building-trades unions, including Local 150, filed a suit in February asking federal courts to rule the Lincolnshire ordinance invalid. Read more