By: Mark Glennon* | Wirepoints
Illinois progressives are all over the media congratulating themselves on passage of The Illinois Worker Freedom of Speech Act, signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday. It passed both houses in the General Assembly along strict party lines, with Republicans opposed.
It has nothing to do with worker freedom of speech, creates a nightmare for employers and is yet another measure by the state that flagrantly ignores the First Amendment’s right to free speech.
Under the Act, most every employer in the state faces mandatory fines of $1,000 per employee plus civil lawsuits if they discuss “religious or political matters” at meetings where worker attendance is mandatory.
Think about that – no discussions allowed on political matters.
So, say you work for a company that makes a renewable energy product of some kind. Your employer would be fined for a meeting discussing the importance of government subsidies for your product and your job . Likewise, a company making conventional gasoline powered vehicles could not tell its employees about the impact of government efforts to replace them with electric vehicle makers.
The list of similar examples is endless. Most every company today has matters pending in government that could impact the company, its capacity to hire people, how much it can afford to pay them and even matters outside of the company’s business that may be important to workers. Employers obviously should have the right to communicate their views on that and hope their workers will support them, and they do under the First Amendment.
The madness continues here.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Passing and signing this obviously unconstitutional bill illustrates the level of intelligence our elected state reps and executive possess.