Ottawa City Council sends message to Governor Bruce Rauner

You can officially consider Ottawa a union friendly city.

The city council Tuesday night passed a resolution they say “protects the middle class” by promising to not pass a “right to work” ordinance. Ottawa Mayor Bob Eschbach says they are not interested in right-to-work and they oppose the idea of doing away with prevailing wages. The city is sending the resolution to legislative leaders and Governor Bruce Rauner.

Rauner has talked about “empowerment zones” where cities can decide if contracted workers should be forced to join a union. He also wants to end prevailing wage laws which set a minimum for contracted workers to be paid.