Governor Bruce Rauner had several House Republicans over to the Executive Mansion last week to ask them to vote "present" when the House Democrats called their "right to work" bill the following day.
Right-to-work laws allow union members to not pay for any of their union's services, even though unions are required by federal law to serve all their members. The laws can cripple unions, which may help businesses but tends to drive down wages.
Why would the Democrats bring an anti-union bill to the House floor? Various reasons - one of them being that they are so opposed to the idea and the governor has pushed it so forcefully that they wanted to finally get the issue off the table by killing it dead. They also wanted to put the Republicans in a tight spot of choosing between the governor and their friends in organized labor.