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AMENDMENT
1 WOULD PERMANENTLY ENSHRINE MADIGAN UNION DEALS IN ILLINOIS
CONSTITUTION
Illinois Policy Institute/
Dylan Sharkey
Former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan
faces a corruption indictment stating he traded political favors for his
cronies getting cash, but the allegations are too familiar to
Illinoisans. For decades they saw Madigan build up public employee union
power, as those unions built up Madigan’s campaign funds.
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 Over 26 years, Madigan-controlled campaign funds saw $10
million in donations from Illinois government unions. They got decades of
pro-union legislation and a public pension system so generous that just the
unfunded debt grew 753% under Madigan’s leadership, to $140 billion in 2020.
Those emboldened and empowered Illinois government unions are not finished with
taxpayers. Now they want Amendment 1, a proposal on the Nov. 8 ballot to
enshrine union power in the Illinois Constitution and keep Madigan-style deals
from ever being undone.
So how did it all start? In 1983, Madigan’s first year as speaker, the Illinois
General Assembly passed the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act and the Illinois
Educational Labor Relations Act. Under Madigan’s leadership, unions pushed
lawmakers to pass both pieces of legislation, which mandated collective
bargaining for public employees and gave them the power to strike – a power few
states allow and something labor and political leaders advised against.
George Meany, the first president of the AFL-CIO, said public unions should be
excluded from collective bargaining. Meany said “it is impossible to
collectively bargain with the government.”
 Before Meany, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said public employees were unique
in that they were employed by taxpayers.
“All Government employees should realize that the process of collective
bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public
service,” Roosevelt wrote.
States neighboring Illinois saw the merit of those labor and government leaders’
words. All of Illinois’ neighbor states, plus Michigan, prohibit all or most
government employees from going on strike.
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Under Madigan’s leadership, labor legislation in
Illinois only passed if it expanded union powers. The unions
rewarded him with that $10 million he used to keep other lawmakers
and even governors under his control.
For example, Senate Bill 1784 passed into law in 2019. The bill gave
unions unprecedented access to personal information such as cell
phone numbers and email addresses of all government employees, even
ones who weren’t union members.
Even though Madigan’s been out of office for over a year and is now
indicted in a federal corruption probe, unions could replace his
corrupt path to power with a legal one: get Amendment 1 put into the
Illinois Constitution.
The amendment would cement four new provisions into the constitution
that no other state has. It would give unions a permanent right to
collective bargaining over not just benefits, but any topic they
choose – a power the Chicago Teachers Union has tried to wield to
pursue its social agenda on housing, immigration, “restorative
justice,” wealth redistribution and defunding the police.
Union contracts would carry the weight of the constitution,
overriding state laws. What’s most dangerous about Amendment 1 is
that if passed, it can never be limited or altered, even if every
lawmaker and voter in the state agreed it needed changing.
Voters have a choice Nov. 8: let Madigan’s legacy continue through
Amendment 1, or protect themselves from more of the income and
property tax hikes driven by the over-generous political favors
granted Illinois’ government unions.
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