As Illinois is a deeply blue state (not to be confused with the
"Deep State", which has been discussed a lot of late on conser-
vative radio shows as well as in conservative periodicals),
its key constituencies have great sway in Springfield, perhaps
none more so than Organized Labor --- especially public unions.
As we gather here at this blog, Illinois' Democrat legislators
are trying to amend that state's constitution to entrench the power
of the public employees' unions and to block reforms.
These are just some of the features of Amendment 1, which will
be placed before Illinois' voters in November.
The Dems hold supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature
which put through this measure for the voters' approval. Amendment
1 would change the Illinois Constitution to read that "employees
shall have the fundamental right to organize and to bargain collectively
through representatives of their own choosing for the purpose of
negotiating wages, hours, and working conditions, and to protect
their economic welfare and safety at work." But the National Labor
Relations Act already has charge over private workers and limits
who can bargain about what. Illinois is not therefore allowed to
expand the collective-bargaining rights of private employees.
Hence the plan of Democrats and their union allies to draft and
pass legislation to bring private employees up to par, as it were,
with their public employee counterparts, for according to State
Sen. Ram Villivalam (D), one of the measure's sponsors, " ...
the members of the House should be aware, the NLRA governs
organizing and collective bargaining in the private sector and,
as such, pre-empts any direct State regulation on the subject."
Although he then added that Amendment 1 thus "could not apply
to the private sector," Villivalam and his fellow Dems in Springfield
are billing Amendment 1 as protection for "all Illinoisans."
Additionally, the pro-union Vote Yes for Workers" Rights also
claims that the legislation will benefit "first responders like nurses,
firefighters, and EMTs" (Note: these categories include private
workers).
Furthermore, Amendment 1 would expand eligible subjects to include
anything that effects workers' "economic welfare and safety at work."
This means that this bill would go far beyond the usual subjects of
primary interest to unionized workers, i.e. wages and hours. This
amendment would bar the Illinois Legislature from passing any
bill that "interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of
employees to organize and bargain collectively over their wages,
hours, and other terms and conditions of employment and work place
safety." Guess what this means for attempts to enact Act 10-type
legislation a' la Wisconsin, with an accompanying right-to-work law.
The Illinois Policy Institute, a free-market think tank, states that
"contracts created under Amendment 1 will carry the weight of the
constitution, allowing government unions to override state laws."
Incredible. Astounding. Shocking. And many of us are concerned
over federal and state bureaucracies which write rules which are
granted the weight of the law, affecting businesses and the products
and services which they provide.
The IPI and the Liberty Justice Center, a public interest law firm,
joined forces to sue to block Amendment 1 from the November
ballot on the grounds that the plain language of its text contradicts
the NLRA, and therefore is in violation of the Supremacy Clause
of the United States Constitution. So far they have been defeated
in circuit county court and in State appellate court, and now plan to
ask the Illinois Supreme Court to hear the case, which is certainly
chock full of liberals making up a comfortable majority. So now
that it looks to be certain that the voters of Illinois will get a say
regarding Amendment 1, they will be the last hope Illinois has
of avoiding a union takeover of state government and the accom-
panying difficulties for the state's economy and public finances.
But seeing as how these same voters voted these power-mongering
Democrats into office and have consistently returned them in every
subsequent election, it's pretty predictable as to what they'll do
in November. And Illinois' unions will have power that unions in
the other 49 states can only dream of possessing.
By the by, Illinois' pension kitty for the public unions is already
broke.
MEM
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