By: Mark Glennon*
Both the Illinois Senate and House are advancing resolutions that would put a constitutional amendment in front of voters to lock in union power and create a new category of constitutional “rights” for unionized workers.
The amendment, if passed by three-fifths votes in each chamber and approved by voters, would prohibit municipalities and the state from ever taking any measure that would impair the ability of workers to collectively bargain over wages, hours and working conditions — and perhaps much more.
It also would create a right, up there with life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, to collectively bargain for their “economic welfare.”
In other words, it would constitutionally ban any attempt to reform collective bargaining rules for both public and private unions and open a Pandora’s box of new rights for unions to claim and sue over.
The substantially identical resolutions, including links to the text, are here and here and one is reproduced below. The amendment would also effectively ban any right-to-work movement.
Reforming collective bargaining rules for public unions is among the essential steps to restoring Illinois to competitive status. We will be writing in detail about that soon, but all such reforms would be banned under the amendment.
Maybe lawmakers have figured out that voters are now disgusted with teachers’ unions and the entirety of how the General Assembly and the Pritzker Administration have given public unions everything they could possibly want. This measure would ensure that, even if incumbents get the boot, public union power with a new cache of open-ended rights would be eternal in Illinois.
The inclusion of “economic welfare” as a new right is vaguely worded but would certainly add a new dimension to potential demands in collective bargaining. The Chicago Teachers Union, for example, has earlier made demands on matters such as rent control that extend far beyond the workplace, and the amendment would the case for such demands.
Personally, I have no general antipathy toward unions. I fully accept the fundamental logic of collective bargaining.
But public unions in Illinois are a different matter entirely. Illinois is an outlier in how much power they have been granted. Collective bargaining rules for government workers here essentially say “the union wins.” For private unions, too, the amendment is so poorly worded that endless confusion and litigation would result.
Opponents include the Illinois Municipal League, the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, and 120 other individuals and groups, according to Center Square. It’s supported by various unions like the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the AFL-CIO.
What’s strange about the proposed amendment is that it has received support in committee votes from at least some Republicans.
More to come from us soon on this.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
This article was updated to include further description of the scope of the proposed amendment.
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Cook County Commissioner Stanley Moore Source: 
Sen. Greg Harris at Thursday press conference. Source: 
Chicago may think it walled itself off from the issue, but the firestorm is only getting started. 
Neither Pritzker or Lightfoot can escape the reality that they’ve lost control over the city’s crime. One statistic that particularly captures their failure is Chicago’s homicide rate compared to that in big-city peers New York and Los Angeles. 
President Biden said the pandemic is essentially over, but Governor Pritzker issued his 34th Covid Disaster Proclamation. President of Wirepoints and the Steve Cochran Show talk about why Pritzker issued the proclamation, what the Federal Government is going to do about this, and if the Governor’s Office has too much power. 
Ted was on with Dan and Amy to talk about the hypocrisy of Gov. Pritzker and Mayor Lightfoot regarding the illegal immigrants from Texas, Pritzker's continued use of Covid emergency orders despite President Biden's declaration, Illinois' collapsing energy independence, the dangers of the SAFE-T Act and more. 
Doesn’t this have to be put on a ballot and the people vote on this issue since it’s changing our state constitution? But with the Chicago machine we can guess who wins every election.
There is a real silver lining with the Democrats (and 11 Senate Republicans) pushing this Anti Right-to-work constitutional amendment, starting with its May 7 introduction in both chambers–IMHO, the Illinois Democrats lost confidence in DC Democrats passing the Federal Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act in the U.S. Senate, since it is cosponsored by only 47 of the 50 Democrats in the Senate. The PRO Act would have stripped the 27 states with Right-to-work laws in place of this worker protection and prevent new Right-to-work laws. Other controversial pro-union planks like the implementation of the ABC test to force… Read more »
For the woke left –obsessed with police refom & ending police immunity, passage of this bill would seem to put an end to all those attempts at police powers reform, firing bad cops, etc by amending police union contracts. Further, if this bill is passed forget about ever being able to fire or discipline any public sector workers or change any of the absurd public sector union work rules…taxpayers are screwed as usual
This will be an important historical case study: Illinois will test the theory whether a State may be comprised of entirely State-compensated ‘workers’ and not disappear up its own rectum.
Thank you for making IL a non starter for businesses wishing to come to IL, and than you for encouraging existing businesses to hop across the border.
Sincerely yours,
The States of Indiana and Wisconsin
I know it is a little too late, but we should revisit the constitutionally of unions for public servants.
With only 11% of Illinois citizens in unions and the rest of us having to save, work overtime, some with an additional part time job just to survive and hopefully be able to retire someday why do the politicians pander to these unions?
VOTES
The 11% are well aware that their continued prosperity depends on strengthening the unions, and their unions provide much funding for friendly politicians (except JB, who I guess funds himself). The 89% have other concerns, too busy earning a living and dealing with the gov’t to do more than maybe vote if they get around to it.
With Pritzker and Democrats legalizing drop box voting, fully expect this to pass in the ‘election’.
After 1970’s added constitutional “not to be diminished” pension protection clause guaranteeing public sector pensions can never be reduced, this bill seems the next step in not only guaranteeing pensions but now guaranteeing public sector union workers pay, working conditions and job security can never be diminished or reduced as well. Inevitably Illinois has to face consolidating it ridiculous 8,900+ units of government which one would think would mean LAYOFFS and RENEGOTIATING contracts for greater efficiency. But with this bill passed, if for example, several municipalities decided to combined police depts would it be possible to layoff, rehire or re-negotiate… Read more »
So happy I got out of this corrupt state it will never change. I wouldn’t trust these citizens that are left to vote this down.
I used to think Illinois was hopeless because it’s leaders ignore massive, growing problems. Now they want to make it against the law to even address the problems. So glad I left.
Illinois now has a death wish – That’s what happens with unbridled power – extremism of the worst sort. What type of private economy do Democrats in Illinois envision 10 years from now? Costs will explode.
The AEM is to blame for much of this nonsense – they decided to play footsie with the Leftist Democrats, e.g. giving to the Marxist BLM, thinking they would be ‘reasonable’ – that is now backfiring.
Disagree on principle alone. Non-presidential election and the refusal to put the pension clause on the election ballot. No one understood the ramifications of the lockbox amendment and how it put more pressure on other tax revenues to make up any shortfalls. Voters will be confused.
If Rauner couldn’t even get a right to work ZONE, why is this even necessary?
I thick for the machine, why this bill is necessary can be gleaned from Capital New articale quote from Sen Villivalam–“Villivalam said it would have minimal impact on private-sector workers because the National Labor Relations Act governs organizing and collective bargaining in the private sector. He said the intent was to protect the right to collective bargaining that is already established under the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act and the Illinois Education Labor Relations Act.” I guess The National Labor Relations Act doesn’t cover public sector unions? Don’t know if PRO ACT that may or may not pass includes any… Read more »
The PRO Act DEFINITELY applies to public sector unions, and all unions. When PRO Act was first drafted in the 116th Congress in early 2019 (H.R. 2474), it was initially intended as a pro-public sector union bill response to the Janus decision. In the fall of 2019, the PRO Act added the ABC test provisions. As Red State’s Kira Davis documented in early 2020, the ABC test was cut & pasted straight from the California AB5 law, which devastated 1099 workers when implemented at the start of 2020. CA Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB5 in September of 2019. By December,… Read more »
Sad to say, 11 Illinois GOP senators voted yes on this Friday.
So 61% (11 out of 18) of the Republicans in the Senate support this amendment. How can this be? I’m told from others on this site that it’s the democrats that are the cause of all our fiscal problems because they kowtow to the unions. So confusing.
It sounds like a constitutional amendment offering union protection has bipartisan support. It’s nice to see our politicians finding common ground. So rare in today’s political environment.
The more I think about it the more I am tempted to say I’d have voted for it too, so I added the last paragraph to the post. Bring it on. I think it would lose and be a great way to educate voters. It would essentially be a referendum on turning the state over to public unions, fully and permanently. We’d all want that for the teachers’ unions, AFSME and the like, no?
yes mark,i personally want public union employees to all make $100 an hour and they all deserve a million dollars a year pension at the tax payers expense,sounds fair to me
I hope it would lose. One of the worst pieces of legislation EVER.
Looking at how the Teacher’s Union controls the school board elections in my town, I don’t share your confidence that it would lose, unfortunately.
Kass used to call it “the combine.” The two entrenched parties work together, they need each other. The Illinois Democrats say “we must defeat Trump and Republicans” to get out their vote. Without Republicans, who would bother to vote for Democrats? Republicans, where they have a chance at power, do likewise.