Posts tagged Amendment 1
Illinois General Assembly passes 3 bills boosting government union power
June 24, 2025 // Illinois law already requires school districts to provide their local unions the personal information of all teachers and other education employees represented by those unions. That includes the employee’s name, worksite location, home address, home telephone number, mobile numbers and personal email address. Currently, that information must be turned over to the local union, even if the employee is not a union member. HB 3309 takes it farther.
Government Unions are Down — But Not Out
September 10, 2024 // For nearly a decade, the Commonwealth Foundation has tracked state-by-state changes in labor laws. Every two years, the Commonwealth Foundation releases its research on the ever-changing legal landscape for public sector unions, assessing each state’s efforts to promote public employees’ rights or cave to unions’ entrenched influence. This fourth edition examines government unions’ attempts, following Janus, to hold onto and expand special legal privileges under state laws. The research also highlights the states reining in government unions’ power and influence by empowering workers.
SPEAKER WELCH GOT UNION POWER INTO ILLINOIS CONSTITUTION, NOW HIS WORKERS USE IT AGAINST HIM
June 5, 2024 // Now, members of Welch’s own staff are suing him for refusing to recognize their chosen union. According to the Illinois Legislative Staff Association, Welch has failed to deal with his staff in good faith and is “stonewalling” the process. After 18 months of being “rebuffed” by Welch in their quest for unionization, the association and a member of Welch’s staff filed suit May 31 in Cook County.
Union membership in Illinois dropped by 27,000 workers in 2023
February 16, 2024 // Criticizing a new bill filed in the Illinois legislature that would require high schools to observe “Workplace Readiness Week,” Mailee Smith, the Illinois Policy Institute’s senior director of Labor Policy and staff attorney, said unions, particularly government unions, will do whatever they can to ensure they maintain that foothold over power. “With this bill, it is about getting the kids … early on to give them this information about unionization and this becomes part of their thought process and part of their worldview without any sort of opposite viewpoint being taught to them,” Smith said.
Right-to-unionize amendment clears Pa. House committee
May 2, 2023 // The House Labor and Industry Committee reported out the proposal introduced by Reps. Elizabeth Fiedler, D-Philadelphia, and Nick Pisciottano, D-Allegheny, with a 12-9 vote. Republicans, who questioned the amendment’s impact on other laws, were unanimous in opposition. “This bill is really, really simple,” Fiedler said. “It would enshrine in the state Constitution the right of workers to organize and collectively bargain, period, exclamation point.” To amend the state Constitution, a proposed amendment must be approved by both chambers of the General Assembly in consecutive sessions. The proposal is then put before voters in a referendum. The earliest the right-to-unionize amendment could appear on the ballot would be the 2025 primary election.
ILLINOIS HOUSE BILL WOULD GIVE MORE POWER TO CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNIONS
January 13, 2023 // Principals and other important administrative staff within the district will now be able to join a union. The average salary for a principal in Illinois is $116,398, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2021 annual report. But ISBE’s data on principals’ salaries statewide shows CPS principals average $149,628 – nearly 30% more than their peers in the rest of the state. Yet they are pushing to unionize. CTU has a history of keeping kids out of school to get what it wants CTU has caused five work stoppages in just the past 11 years.
ILLINOIS: WHAT’S NEXT FOR AMENDMENT 1?
January 6, 2023 // Now that the Illinois Constitution has been amended to expand government union power, residents can expect to see costly government union demands, increased taxes and litigation to clarify its vague language.
AMENDMENT 1 COULD LET ILLINOIS POLICE UNIONS UNDO SAFE-T ACT MANDATES
December 2, 2022 // In fact, government unions could override more than 350 state laws through their collective bargaining agreements. That includes at least 11 provisions related to DCFS workers and 38 provisions in the School Code aimed at protecting children. With nearly 30 state contracts expiring in 2023 – and more than 6,000 units of government in Illinois that could also negotiate union contracts in the next few years – Illinoisans could soon find out just how much power government unions have been granted. And they could see it thousands of times over.
Illinois: Local unions celebrating anticipated passing of Workers’ Rights Amendment
November 10, 2022 // Marilee Smith, with the Illinois Policy Institute, said the amendment could give union leaders too much power. “It could allow government unions to negotiate virtually anything,” Smith said.
Tennessee adds right-to-work to state constitution
November 10, 2022 // Tennessee sent a clear message around the country yesterday: Worker freedom is a constitutional right that must be protected. Voters approved Amendment 1 by a two to one margin, elevating right-to-work from law to a constitutionally protected right in Tennessee. The amendment swept all 95 counties in the Volunteer State. Gov. Frank Keating, Gov. Bill Haslam, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally,