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 If American labor has a golden patron, it surely
must be President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But FDR had pretty distinct views
about private-sector labor unions versus government unions.
“The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for
administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual
discussions with Government employee organizations. The employer is the whole
people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in
Congress,” Roosevelt wrote in 1937.
He said government workers are public servants, so government unions would work
against public service. He was right, and in Illinois we’ve seen why as the
public serves government workers. It has resulted in the nation’s second-highest
property taxes and No. 7 combined state and local tax burden.
Government unions spent millions on state political campaigns, creating a system
of benefits that Illinois taxpayers cannot afford: state pensions that eat 25%
of the state budget yet still are owed $313 billion. When their golden patron,
Mike Madigan, was deposed and indicted, they needed a new path to power.
Enter Amendment 1, a proposed change to the Illinois Constitution at the top of
the Nov. 8 ballot.
While the government unions are calling it a “Workers’ Rights Amendment,” others
with solid labor credentials see it as a threat to working families.
Anthony Travis comes from a strong union family and was a union steward for the
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
“Union bosses could ask local municipalities to pay their mortgage, pay their
rent. The Chicago Teachers Union went on strike and argued for housing …
assistance in 2019,” Travis said. “The precedent has been set, and this
amendment opens a Pandora’s box of what else union bosses could ask for and have
us pay for.”
The Rev. Phalese Binion nearly lost her house to high property taxes. If
Amendment 1 passes, she sees ever-increasing taxes as taxpayers try to satisfy
greater government union contract demands.
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“I am a former union member myself, and there are laws in place to protect union
workers anyway, so who is this amendment really going to help?” she said. “The
commercial they have for the ‘Workers’ Rights Amendment’ is very misleading.
They do not share that it only applies to government workers. In all honesty, if
the gentleman standing in their ad isn’t a union boss, Amendment 1 won’t help
him.”
Jerome Cooper was a union electrician who retired with a fixed income when he
became disabled.
“Higher property taxes from Amendment 1 would mean I’m gonna have to leave
Illinois because I can’t afford to stay here. The same goes for most of my
elderly neighbors,” Cooper said. “It’d be devastating.”
As FDR said, there’s a difference between supporting the advances private-sector
unions gave all American workers, and supporting government unions that will
only serve a select few. Illinois voters face a request to become the only state
that protects this special interest with its state constitution.
Voters also face a question of raising their property taxes.
If property taxes simply continue to increase at their long-run average rate,
the typical homeowner will pay over $2,100 in additional property taxes during
the next four years. Amendment 1 would likely accelerate that by expanding the
bargaining power of government union bosses to negotiate a near-endless array of
subjects, ultimately forcing residents to pay the bill for costly contract
concessions that carry more weight than state law.
Illinois’ working families don’t need to carry a heavier tax burden. Travis,
Rev. Binion and Cooper shouldn’t need to worry about government workers pricing
them out of their homes.
Brad Weisenstein is managing editor of the Illinois Policy
Institute.
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