antoine-roquentin:

As in most other states, corporate interests have preserved “at will” employment laws in both Kentucky and Illinois that allow employers to fire workers for no cause. But earlier this year, Illinois lawmakers introduced legislation to protect workers from such firings unless an employer had “just cause” for a termination.

The Illinois bill, called the ​​Illinois Employee Security Act, explicitly states that a “just cause” for firing does not include “an employee’s refusal to work under conditions that the employee reasonably believes would expose him or her, other employees, or the public to an unreasonable health or safety risk.”

The legislation, which has 15 sponsors, would join Illinois with Montana as the only two states with a “just cause” law. However, the bill was criticized by the powerful Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, and it was formally opposed by the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. Both organizations list Amazon as a member.

Amazon also disclosed donating last year to the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, another organization opposing the measure, according to state records.

Since being introduced in February, the bill has been bottled up in Illinois’ Democratic-controlled legislature, despite a survey from the National Employment Law Project (NELP) showing that a third of Illinois workers “say that fear of being fired or disciplined would prevent them from raising workplace health and safety concerns to their employer.”

The disaster “shows the urgent need for protection against unfair firings — like the [Illinois Employee Security Act], which is now under consideration in the state legislature,” said Paul Sonn, state policy program director for NELP. “Retaliation against workers who refuse to work under dangerous conditions is not just inhumane — it endangers all of us by silencing workers from sounding the alarm about dangers on the job.”

Integrity Staffing Solutions, a temporary staffing firm which has listed jobs at the Edwardsville Amazon warehouse, is a member of the American Staffing Association, a group that’s employed dozens of lobbyists to fight the Illinois Employee Security Act, likely because the bill would also extend protections to temp workers.

“Temporary labor is a vastly expanding sector in the workforce, and that has workers living day-to-day — even more precarious paycheck-to-paycheck — and limits access to basic workplace protections and rights,” said Kara Rodriguez of the Raise The Floor Alliance, which has been pushing the legislation. “In October, Amazon announced they will hire 150,000 temp workers to prepare for the seasonal boost in sales. The American Staffing Association was quick to oppose the [“just cause” legislation] because it includes temp workers under just cause protections.”

According to reporting by The Intercept, some longtime Amazon workers say they’ve never been part of any kind of tornado safety or fire drill during their time working for the company.