As Springfield legislators work to combat the financial setbacks and government disarray of the Trump administration, Representative Williams has emerged as a critical partner in the fight back against this chaos. The Chicago Tribune highlighted Rep. Williams efforts to expand workplace transparency in a new piece from Jeremy Gorner, linked here. The article reads:

Another bill is designed to strengthen a five-year-old law passed amid the #MeToo movement. The state’s Workplace Transparency Act doesn’t allow “unilateral” confidentiality agreements that prevent truthful statements or disclosures about employment discrimination, including sexual harassment, unless both parties agree otherwise. The new measure from Democratic state Rep. Ann Williams would expand that law, barring such agreements from taking effect if they prevent truths about safety standards and other workplace-related issues from being exposed. Her bill also passed the House and is awaiting consideration in the Senate.

Williams said the issue “took on renewed importance” because of the uncertainty of the Trump administration’s actions on workplace protections at the federal level, particularly through the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Labor Relations Board, which enforces labor law throughout the country, she said.

“We’re really looking to expand the scope in a way that perhaps we wouldn’t have considered but for the Trump administration’s efforts to decimate some of the laws we’ve had on the books, really for decades,” Williams, of Chicago, said of her new legislation.

Rep. Williams is committed to safeguarding all workplace protections for workers in Illinois, despite attempts to rein in civil liberties coming from the White House.