Should Unions Govern?

As your favorite Peasant has written two weeks ago, 

there is a movement afoot to guarantee union power

in the Illinois Constitution, with a ballot measure at 

the forefront of the effort. As an amendment to that

state's constitution, called the Workers' Rights Amend-

ment by its supporters, it would make parents kiss their

parental rights goodbye, taxpayers wave their hard-earned

money so long, along with even a glimmer of a chance 

of a state turnaround, bidding all to send an occasional 

post card. 

This was not always the status quo in the land of Lincoln.

As recently as the 1960s, Illinois government employees 

were considered to be "public servants", and they even 

regarded themselves as such. Although their pay was 

rather low they retired with a pension for life. In 1967,

however, state legislators legalized collective bargaining 

for public sector workers, then in 1973 made it compulsory 

for governments to bargain with state employees. In 1984

a law was passed making school districts negotiate with 

teachers' unions, piling on a rule affording teachers explicit

legal protection to strike in case of disputes. In 1999 the 

state lawmakers did the same for the police and firefighter

unions. 

The legislation also guarantees that no law can be passed 

that "interferes with, negates or diminishes" these afore-

mentioned union rights nor any others. Any lawmakers 

under this law will be blocked from reducing property 

taxes or from restoring parents' rights (see the next 

paragraph to learn the consequences of the latter).

At present, just three states --- New York, Missouri, and

Hawaii --- have collective bargaining provisions in their 

constitutions. Illinois, though, has zoomed past them and

their rights entered in those states' constitutions expanding

bargaining powers beyond hours and wages to include 

the protection of workers' "economic welfare" and "safety",

terms so broad and vague that they enable public unions to

bargain over rent control and defunding the police (!). 

Teachers unions can join in the mischief with the ability to

insert radical racial and sex-education curriculums right into

labor contracts. For example, parents could not go to their 

local school boards to demand that the 1619 Project not be

taught to their children, nor could they protect them from 

sex-ed texts with graphic images and printed descriptions 

of sexual acts and so forth. 

This ballot measure, labeled Amendment 1, would forever

ban right-to-work laws from being enacted in Illinois. 

All but one of Illinois' neighboring states is a right-to-work 

state, and this would be trouble for Illinois' economy.

Any advantages of this proposed law would accrue only to

government workers, as private-sector workers are covered

under federal labor laws, which do not grant such latitude 

in many labor-related matters. 

Illinois' political masters would love nothing better than to 

have their ideas spread to the rest of the country. Don't think

that it couldn't happen; Democrat governors and legislators

in other states have a blueprint to go by. Keep all this in mind 

as you go to the polls on November 8, and on election days to

come.

MEM