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Op-Ed: Will Illinois voters grant government
union bosses more power than elected officials?
[The Center Square] Mailee Smith
In a little over a year,
Illinois voters will make two major decisions at the ballot box: First,
who will be their next governor? Second, and more importantly, how much
power will they hand over to public-sector unions? |
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 While the gubernatorial race is sure to make headlines, the
lesser-known Amendment 1 vote could wreck the future of Illinois’ economy and
make union bosses more powerful than voters or elected officials by cementing
broad, sweeping control into the state constitution.
Proponents of Amendment 1 say a constitutional amendment would be about keeping
right-to-work out of Illinois, but what it would really do is boost the power of
government unions to make demands that state law couldn’t control, and taxpayers
would be expected to fund.
There are four parts of the amendment, each granting unions an
unprecedented amount of power.
First, the amendment grants unionization ability to all employees in the state –
private or public. This language is incredibly broad, and there is no wording in
the amendment to limit its application. On its face, it doesn’t matter if the
“employee” works for a government unit, a private company or even an individual.
It broadly applies to all employees. Could Illinois’ future legislature be made
up of unionized lawmakers?
Second, government union leaders could demand anything they want in
negotiations. Unions have the power to seek anything “for the purpose of
negotiating wages, hours, and working conditions, and to protect their economic
welfare and safety at work.”
For example, the Chicago Teachers Union, which has tried to bargain over issues
such as defunding the police and rent abatement, could attempt to claim a
constitutional right to negotiate over those and other extraneous subjects.
Where in the past Chicago Public Schools could have said it does not have to
negotiate over these subjects, the district’s right to refuse to bargain could
change under Amendment 1.
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And then there’s the power grab that cements union
control into the state constitution. Amendment 1 says “no law shall
be passed that interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of
employees to organize and bargain collectively over their wages,
hours, and other terms and conditions of employment and work place
safety.” While on its face this may seem to protect workers, in
reality it shields union leaders by preventing state lawmakers from
providing accountability in the law.
The legislature won’t even be able to pass
legislation defining terms like “employee” or clarifying which
subjects can be negotiated because the amendment will be more
powerful than state law. Lawmakers also won’t be able to change the
current law that allows many government union contracts to override
contrary laws and regulations.
Finally, the fourth tenet of this amendment is to ban right-to-work
laws in Illinois. This comes as no surprise since union leaders
would prefer to force unionization, but it would be unconstitutional
as it concerns state employees. In Janus v. AFSCME, the Supreme
Court reestablished the right of government employees to choose not
to pay dues or fees to public-sector unions.
But what Amendment 1 really boils down to is simple: money. When
there is no limit on what unions can do and no legislative checks
and balances available, there is no accountability on spending. That
means even higher taxes for Illinoisans.
The focus of the 2022 election may not be this amendment, but what
exists in the state constitution will outlast whomever assumes the
governor’s mansion next.
Mailee Smith is staff attorney and director of labor policy at the
nonpartisan Illinois Policy Institute. |
