December 14, 2015 Chicago City Clerk and Democratic Candidate for Illinois Comptroller Susana A. Mendoza’s Response to Lincolnshire Right To Work Vote Contact: Lauren Peters [email protected] 312-834-4210 This evening, the Village Board of Lincolnshire ignored a legal opinion rendered by the Illinois Attorney General and turned their backs on hard working families by voting in favor of creating a so called Right To Work area. By doing so, they have made it clear that they do not care about whether or not workers in private companies can earn a decent wage or provide for their families. Right-to-Work, which should be more accurately titled as Right-to-Work-for-Less, is bad for all Illinois workers. According to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.- based think tank, wages are lower in right-to-work states. In their April 22, 2015 report “Right-to- Work” States Still Have Lower Wages, they note that employees in those states earn $1,558 less yearly than in states without the law. More strikingly, wages are 3.1% lower for everyone, not just union members, in right-to-work states versus the other states. I’m also disappointed that my opponent, sitting Comptroller Leslie Munger, has not come out against this awful legislation. First and foremost, this illegal attack on working families was passed in her hometown of Lincolnshire. Secondly, and even more disturbing, is that her campaign chairperson, Mayor Liz Brandt, is the sponsor of the wretched bill. While as of late, Comptroller Munger has tried to walk back her comments of being the “proud wingman” for the current Governor and has attempted to distance herself from his full-on assault on hard working men and women in this State, her deafening silence on this issue makes her complicit in the Governor’s and Mayor Brandt’s attack on organized labor. I urge the Comptroller to do the right thing and direct her campaign chairman to introduce an ordinance repealing tonight’s vote. Comptroller Munger can’t have it both ways. Not when the first municipality in the Chicago area to pass Right-to-Work is her hometown and not when her campaign chairman is the person who sponsored it. I am proud to stand with the hard-working men and women of this State. Illinois should not join the other Right-to-Work states, who in effect, have lower wages than their counterparts. Lincolnshire should not be used as the petri dish for experimenting with infected policies of the Governor’s disastrous so-called Turn Around Agenda. The residents of Lincolnshire and Illinois deserve better. .