A group of Cook County prosecutors has filed a union petition with the Illinois Labor Relations Board after State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke missed a deadline their union set to provide voluntary recognition of their proposed bargaining unit, which would include hundreds of assistant state’s attorneys who staff the country’s second-largest prosecutor’s office.
Last week, union representatives with Teamsters Local 700 sent a letter to O’Neill Burke asking her to voluntarily recognize a union of assistant state’s attorneys. A majority of prosecutors in the proposed bargaining unit had signed union cards, Teamsters representatives said, though they declined to specify the percentage that had done so.
In the letter last week, Teamsters Local 700 Assistant General Counsel Laura Leahy said the union expected O’Neill Burke to honor a campaign-time pledge to voluntarily recognize a prosecutors union.
Voluntary recognition would allow the Teamsters to bypass a potentially lengthy legal process in pursuit of recognition, Leahy said. Though Cook County assistant public defenders have been unionized with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees since the mid-1980s, a decades-old Illinois Supreme Court decision barred assistant state’s attorneys from forming a union after former State’s Attorney Jack O’Malley challenged their union drive. The Teamsters believe they have legal avenues available to overcome that decision, union representatives said, but would prefer to avoid a lengthy court process.
In their letter dated Feb. 10, the Teamsters gave O’Neill Burke a deadline of noon on Feb. 13 to respond to their request for recognition. Failure to do so, they said, would be understood as a denial of voluntary recognition.
In a statement Thursday, a spokesperson for the state’s attorney’s office appeared to walk back O’Neill Burke’s campaign promise.
During her campaign for state’s attorney, O’Neill Burke pledged to voluntarily recognize a prosecutors union during her term “should majority interest be clearly demonstrated,” according to a letter the Teamsters provided to the Tribune.
“I know firsthand the challenges that (assistant state’s attorneys) face on a daily basis,” wrote O’Neill Burke, who once worked as an ASA, in her campaign-time letter to the Teamsters. “Union representation and the ability to bargain collectively with management are one of the most important tools to protect the rights of workers. It would be my honor to be a part of that historic process.”
But in a statement to the Tribune on Thursday morning, state’s attorney office spokesperson Matt McGrath said O’Neill Burke “supports organized labor and the right of workers to collectively bargain, including ASAs once Illinois law allows for it.”
“Decades of binding case law must be addressed for that to happen, however, and as the county’s chief law enforcement officer and a former judge, she has taken an oath repeatedly to uphold the law,” he said. “Our office looks forward to working with the appropriate stakeholders to get this right.”
The last major attempt to unionize Cook County prosecutors ended with a 1995 Illinois Supreme Court decision that found the assistant state’s attorneys were “managerial” employees without the right to unionize under state labor law.
The Teamsters have maintained that the ruling does not preclude O’Neill Burke from voluntarily recognizing the union, and Leahy said the Teamsters still hope she will do so to provide a more expedient start to a process in which the state’s attorney’s office and the union would bargain together over the prosecutor’s wages and working conditions.
In a letter sent to O’Neill Burke and members of her office Thursday, Leahy asked the state’s attorney’s office to “not waste taxpayer resources” by declining to voluntarily recognize the union.
“It is troubling that you appear to be attempting to silence those who have made a career out of being a voice for the voiceless,” Leahy wrote. “But if we will not be silent when advocating for victims, why should we be silent when advocating for ourselves?”
Absent voluntary recognition, the union said, the prosecutors hope to secure the right to unionize either via legislation to amend the state’s labor act or by using an amendment to the Illinois Constitution that protects the right to collective bargaining for workers across the state.
A bill introduced by state Rep. Kambium “Kam” Buckner this month would amend the state’s labor relations act to include public sector lawyers including assistant state’s attorneys, the Teamsters said. In its current form, the bill would become effective in December 2026. A similar bill also supported by the Teamsters stalled during the last legislative session despite passing through the House and Senate.
If the prosecutors aren’t able to solidify their right to bargain via legislation, the Teamsters said, they believe the state’s Workers’ Rights Amendment, a constitutional amendment that Illinois voters passed by referendum in 2022, would allow the prosecutors to unionize. The amendment protects Illinois workers’ “fundamental right to organize and to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing.”
“We’re prepared to take on the battle all the way to the finish line,” said Pasquale Gianni, director of government affairs for Teamsters Joint Council 25, the umbrella organization for Teamsters locals throughout Illinois and northwest Indiana. “We feel very strongly about our legal position,” he said.
The Teamsters said they filed their union petition with majority support from the assistant state’s attorneys, though they declined to specify an exact percentage.
If the state’s attorney’s office challenges the Teamster’s union petition, the case could proceed to a hearing before an administrative law judge, said Kimberly Stevens, the executive director of the state’s labor relations board. If no objections are filed, the petition either would proceed to a tally to establish majority interest or a formal union election process.
Chicago Tribune’s Madeline Buckley contributed.
