MARCH 2008The Illinois Senate Committee on Licenses failed to pass out of committee a bill that would create licensing in Illinois and establish a board that would have little or no merit shop representation. MIDWEST IEC President Gary Dykstra received word from Senator Gary Dahl that the bill was now a shell bill and would not be passed. Gary wrote the following letter to Senator Dahl regarding the latest attempt to pass licensing with little merit shop representation on the Board of Examiners. Here's Gary's note to Senator Dahl.
"SB 2760 came to my attention yesterday and after an initial review, I see 2 issues that we object to ...
- Why is the Director of the Dept of Labor in charge of appointing the members of the Board of Examiners, when every other trade is regulated by the Dept of Professional Regulation?
- Why does the legislation specify that (3) NECA members (Union Contractors) be appointed to the Board of Examiners? Why doesn't the legislation specify members from IEC or ABC (another merit shop association) as well???
Our past experience as an association, is that when legislation like this is put in place, it is used by the IBEW to deny licenses to non-union contractors. This is in fact what happened to our association members in California.
While we do support State Licensing of Electrical Contractors, we want to see it done fairly, and SB 2760, as written will not insure that the licensing will be administered in a fair manner."
Gary Dykstra
President
MIDWEST IEC
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