Amendment 1: workers rights or tax increase?
Amendment 1 would prohibit Illinois from becoming a right-to-work state.
This Tuesday, voters will be asked to vote on a proposed Illinois Constitutional Amendment 1, Right to Collective Bargaining Measure, which says:
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The last sentence means that as long as an employer and its unions want to require all their employees to join the union, no law can be passed to prevent that. Non-union members in Illinois would have no "right to work." Advocates, such as Vote Yes for Workers' Rights, say that weakening unions has caused lower wages, benefits, training, and safety standards.
The libertarian Illinois Policy thinktank says the amendment would give unions more power in Illinois than in any other state. It could make it impossible for governments to renegotiate any pension plans included in collective bargaining agreements, which could make it harder to reduce state debt or property taxes. That's why they claim the law, though it says nothing about property taxes, would increases property taxes by $2,100 for the typical family.
