Blue States Line Up To Ban Anti-Union ‘Captive Audience’ Meetings

A growing number of states are moving to bar employers from holding mandatory anti-union meetings at work, a move labor advocates hope will give employees more confidence to vote “union yes.”

Illinois is poised to become the eighth state to enact such a ban after the legislature passed a bill outlawing employers from holding mandatory meetings of a political or religious nature.

Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker plans to sign the legislation by the end of this month, a spokesperson told HuffPost.

That would add Illinois to a list that already includes Connecticut, Maine, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, New Jersey and Washington.

Meanwhile, at least another 10 states are considering passing similar legislation, potentially covering more than 60 million workers around the country, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.

For years, unions have bemoaned the fact that employers have essentially unfettered access to their workers to make the case against organizing, while unions can only mount their arguments in voluntary, offsite settings. There is even a term for when employers force workers to listen to anti-union messaging in group or one-on-one talks: “captive audience” meetings .

Like in other states, the Illinois measure, called the “Worker Freedom of Speech Act,” goes beyond the subject of collective bargaining, forbidding employers from holding mandatory meetings on “religious or political matters.” That means employers could not force a worker to attend a meeting where the company promoted a political candidate or particular religious views.

Tim Drea, the president of the Illinois AFL-CIO, said it made “a lot of sense” for the state labor federation to get behind the bill. While Drea