Illinois Poised to Pass Law Protecting Union Bargaining Amidst Record Unemployment, Worsening Economy

A "Now Hiring" sign is displayed on a storefront in the Adams Morgan Neighborhood in Washington on Oct. 7, 2022. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Unions across Illinois are celebrating the passage of a labor rights amendment to the state constitution that would ban “right-to-work” laws throughout the state.

Amendment 1 (also known as the “Workers’ Rights Amendment”) solidifies collective bargaining as a state constitutional right that cannot be legislated away. The SEIU Healthcare Illinois union has called it a “testament to the collective power of working people.”

“Voters across the state reaffirmed that Illinois is a state by and for working people,” the groups said, “and they chose to protect working families over corporate interests. By enshrining workers’ rights into our state’s Constitution, future generations of Illinois workers will continue to have a voice on the job to fight for livable wages, workplace safety, paid leave, and more.”

But critics say that Amendment 1 is a boondoggle that would give public and private unions immense power in perpetuity. Unions would be able to bargain not only for wages and hours, but also for nebulous concepts of “economic welfare” and “safety.”

While no other state has enacted a constitutional amendment like Amendment 1, Illinois already experienced severe consequences when its public employees’ pensions fell under a similar constitutional provision.

“After lawmakers enacted a pension reform law in 2014 to modestly scale back future costs,” wrote Rachel Greszler for The Daily Signal, “public employees’ unions sued. Ultimately, Illinois’ Supreme Court interpreted the state constitution’s pension protection clause, which prohibits public employees’ pensions from being ‘diminished,’ to mean that reforms to current employees’ retirement benefits cannot be made even prospectively.”

According to the Illinois Policy Institute, Amendment 1 will guarantee an estimated $2,100 property tax hike among other higher taxes, prevent commonsense government reforms to use taxpayer dollars more efficiently, and worsen Illinois’ reputation as one of the most unfriendly states in the nation for small businesses.

“They tried to sneak a hidden tax hike by voters,” said Illinois Policy Institute President Matt Paprocki. “The fact that the vote (was too close to call) speaks to Illinoisans’ distrust in enshrining costly new provisions into the constitution that could handcuff them for years to come.”

As of Monday, 99 percent of precincts reported “Yes” at 2.1 million votes (58 percent) and “No” at 1.5 million votes (42 percent).

Passage of Amendment 1 comes amidst a severe economic downturn for the state of Illinois. Major corporations such as Caterpillar, Boeing, Citadel, and Tyson have left the state. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Illinois had the highest unemployment rate of all states in September at a record 4.5 percent, while WalletHub says that Illinois’ unemployment rate is almost 20 percent higher than it was months before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2019.