University of Illinois Political Science Professor Kent Redfield/Photo courtesy of UIS

By Jim Anderson–Illinois Radio News

When it comes to the governor’s local right-to-work proposal, he must have some kind of an angle.

It’s probably political negotiation, says Kent Redfield, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

“The governor is clearly picking a fight, a fight he probably can’t win, but there may be a strategy here that says if I come out with these kinds of proposals, then that will make what we actually end up doing not look as stark,” he said.

What is right-to-work? In most union contracts, employers and employees agree that workers covered by the contract must be members of the union. Where so-called right-to-work laws are in place, those agreements are illegal.

The governor this week proposed letting cities or counties decide if they locally want to make those agreements illegal. Redfield says the idea of enacting laws like this on a local basis is new.