Chicago's skyscrapers are designed to sway so they don't shatter, but the architects of the 1970 Illinois Constitution failed to follow those foundational rules: they imposed rigidity.
And 52 years later, Illinois taxpayers are paying dearly because public pensions cannot bend. Instead, the broken system imperils state services, could fail retirees and threatens to crush taxpayers.
Flexibility is important when you cannot know the strength of future headwinds. Lesson learned, right?
Wrong.
State lawmakers listened to the government unions that fund their campaigns and put a rigid change to the Illinois Constitution at the top of the Nov. 8 ballot. Union backers call it the "Workers' Rights Amendment," but if passed the vague wording of Amendment 1 would go far beyond stopping Illinois from becoming a right-to-work state and give government unions unyielding negotiating powers enshrined in the state constitution.
While lawmakers might not have learned from the pension fiasco – or chosen to ignore it as they curry favor with union support and cash for their campaigns – that doesn't mean voters can't guard their own wallets from the implications of Amendment 1.
The plain text of Amendment 1 does four things:
- Creates a "fundamental right" for government workers to unionize and bargain – on par with freedom of speech and religion.
- Expands bargaining for government worker unions beyond wages and benefits to include broad new subjects, including "economic welfare."
- Prohibits state and local lawmakers from passing taxpayer-friendly reforms, such as limits to the length of government union contracts or improved disciplinary measures for misconduct.
- Bans right to work, a policy that protects workers from being fired for refusing to pay money to a union.
It's hard to guess all the implications of Amendment 1 because the language is so broad. Analysis by the Illinois Policy Institute has uncovered a host of likely impacts, and none of them make Illinois a better place to live or work. That's likely why no other state has granted these powers to a special interest.
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