Letter: Amendment 1 vs. Right to Work

Supporters of Amendment 1 call it a “Workers’ Rights Amendment.” Voters should be wary of how Democrats describe the various elements of their agenda. A similar instance is the “Inflation Reduction Act” that was recently passed by the Democrats in Washington, D.C., which included hundreds of billions of new federal government spending.

Illinois already grants more power to public unions through various state statutes, compared to each of our neighboring states. This proposed amendment appears to be in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Janus vs AFSCME, which allows government workers the opportunity to opt out of paying dues or “agency fees” to a union. The Janus decision also served to promote workers’ rights by ending the forced unionization of government workers, which established a fundamental right to work for government employees.

No state constitution in the country includes a ban on right-to-work. There are nine state constitutions that do include right-to-work language, but in each of these cases those provisions grant workers the choice as to whether they want to join and pay a union. Illinois would be the first state to go against that “norm.” Unless we vote no.

Christopher Schurrer

McHenry