<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2802" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Folks wonder why I think Democrats are a worthy
political investment by unions and other progressives. Well, Illinois is
one of the only large states with Democratic control of both statehouses and the
governorship, so it's a good test of what Democrats really do when they have
power. And the results have been pretty damn good in the last few
years.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>From a blog post today:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.nathannewman.org/log/archives/003632.shtml">http://www.nathannewman.org/log/archives/003632.shtml</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<H3>In Praise of Illinois: Progressive Agenda in in the States</H3>
<P>Yesterday, Illinois's governor Rod Blagojevich proposed a new initiative to
<A
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/national/13illinois.html?ex=1297486800&en=2af45a98ab05f8c6&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss">extend
pre-kindegarten education </A>to all three and four-year olds in the state, a
proposal that would help middle class families struggling with early education
expenses on their own.
<P>This is just an examples of how Illinois has been quietly emerging as a
national font of progressive ideas and legislation. Folks wonder what the
progressive agenda should look like, but what's been enacted in Illinois in
recent years should give you pretty good guidance. From labor rights to health
care, the state has been chartering out new innovations. To give just a few
other examples:
<P>
<LI>A new <A
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/16/national/16children.html?ex=1289797200&en=e2c266de7dbc2b1d&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss">health
care program for children </A>was enacted that extended coverage for 250,000
previously uninsured children of working and middle class parents. <BR>
<LI>To protect patient care and ease the burden on overworked nurses, the state
<A href="http://www.jacksonlewis.com/legalupdates/article.cfm?aid=824">banned
mandatory overtime for nurses</A> in the state.<BR>
<LI>The state raised the minimum wage to $6.50 per hour a few years ago.<BR>
<LI><A
href="http://www.wildmanharrold.com/practice/FMLA_II.htm?Doc_ID=2511">Victims of
sexual or domestic violence</A> were guaranteed 12 weeks of unpaid leave to
recover.<BR>
<LI>"Sexual orientation" was added to the state civil rights law, <A
href="http://hr.blr.com/display.cfm/id/10816">protecting gays and lesbians</A>
from employment discrimination.<BR>
<LI>Corporate accountability was increased through a <A
href="http://www.jacksonlewis.com/legalupdates/article.cfm?aid=456">whisteblower
law</A> that protects employees from firing or other retaliation if they
disclose information to law enforcement agencies about potentially illegal
activity by the company..<BR>
<LI>Limited english speakers were protected in their rights to talk in Spanish
or other languages to fellow workers under an amendment to the Illinois Human
Rights Act to combat abusive "English-only" rules in the workplace.<BR>
<LI>Illinois passed legislation to crack down on abusive and unsafe working
conditions in the <A
href="http://www.agendaforjustice.org/2005/08/gov_blagojevich.shtml">day labor
industry</A>, improving the lives of 300,000 day laborers in the state.<BR>
<LI>The state also passed legislation to <A
href="http://www.nathannewman.org/log/archives/001057.shtml">bring all state
workers under federal anti-discrimination laws</A>, voluntarily waiving the
state's "sovereign immunity" to counteract bad Supreme Court "states rights"
decisions.<BR>
<LI>The state <A
href="http://www.uaw.org/solidarity/rnews/05/q2/r4/r4_01.cfm">protected union
rights </A>by providing unemployment insurance benefits when companies
unilaterally lock out workers during a contract dispute.<BR>
<LI>Blagojevich signed an executive order <A
href="http://www.gov.il.gov./gov/execorder.cfm?eorder=34">helping day care
workers unionize</A>, leading to <A
href="http://www.seiu.org/public/child_care/il_providers_unite.cfm">unionization</A>
and better working conditions for 49,000 child care workers in the state.<BR>
<LI>The state strengthened its bill <A
href="http://www.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=1&RecNum=2172">protecting
prevailing wages</A> for public works.
<P>States like Illinois are pioneering ahead with broad agendas to expand
benefits for families and defend human rights for all. Blagojevich's
administration (like much of Illinois politics recently) has been under pressure
from investigations, but if he pulls off reelection, it will be largely due to a
strong focus on bread and butter legislation to improve the lives of residents
of his state. </P></LI></DIV></BODY></HTML>