Federal rights for state workers upheld

CHICAGO, April 1 (UPI) -- A U.S. district court judge has ruled states cannot pass laws that limit private-sector workers' rights to negotiate job terms, a union attorney said.

"The state can't legislate workers' rights," said attorney Terrance McGann, who represented the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters in a case challenging a 2010 law in Illinois intended to allow exhibitors at Chicago's McCormick Place convention hall to bypass paying overtime, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.

Judge Ronald Guzman's ruling upholding the National Labor Relations Act on behalf of the carpenters and Teamsters Local 727 will seriously set back efforts to bring business back to the convention hall, which has been losing business to cheaper locations such as Orlando, Fla., the newspaper said.

Jim Reilly, a trustee at the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, an agency run by Chicago and the state of Illinois, said, "The implementation of those (state) reforms has, virtually overnight, transformed McCormick Place."

"Not only were our existing customers convinced to keep their events in Chicago, but new shows have been rapidly signing up."

A spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton said the shows booked at the convention hall since the law was passed would generate about $1 billion in spending in Chicago.

McGann said the ruling could have implications in other states. State governments legislating worker rights "is exactly what they are trying to do to public employees in Wisconsin, in Indiana, in Ohio," he said.