Letter: Vote no on Amendment 1

To the Editor:

Please vote no on Amendment 1. The following is based on a position paper from illinoisfamily.org:

Amendment 1 will hand over to the state’s unionized work force (15% of workers) unprecedented power over the non-unionized workforce, giving unions more power than the Legislature.

This amendment will actually give union leaders, who are usually pro-Democratic Party, way too much power.

Amendment 1 would use the state constitution to create a “fundamental right” for an employee to unionize – and eliminate alternatives for employees who do not want to unionize. It would give labor unions a “fundamental right” to implement negotiating tactics on an array of issues according to the discretion of the labor union.

This is hard to believe, but the Illinois Family Institute says Amendment 1 would “increase property taxes by an average of $2100 per year, according to tax policy experts.”

Amendment 1 would give union bosses fundamental rights to require Illinois businesses to consider unionizing their non-union employees at the request of only one person.

I will end with a quote from the Chicago Tribune: “We endorse a no vote. We support the right of unions to represent their members and to bargain collectively for the best deal they can secure. But we do not see an Illinois threat to those rights, and we see this endorsement as an opening to skew the balance of power in the public sector to an unacceptable degree.”

Lynn McCann

Sterling