With U.S. union ranks swelling as everyone from coffee shop baristas to warehouse workers seeks to organize, Illinois voters will decide next month whether to amend their state constitution to guarantee the right to bargain collectively.
With U.S. union ranks swelling as everyone from coffee shop baristas to warehouse workers seeks to organize,will decide next month whether to amend their state constitution to guarantee the right to bargain collectively.
Tim Drea, president of Illinois AFL-CIO, which is pushing for passage, said union counterparts from around the country have been calling him about the ballot measure.Unions and others who support the proposed amendment view it as a way to ensure that workers will always be able to use their collective clout to secure better pay, hours and working conditions.
Union rights have taken a beating in Republican-led states in recent years. Twenty-seven states now have right-to-work laws, and Wisconsin went so far as to strip nearly all of its public workers, including teachers, of collective bargaining rights. As Illinois voters decide whether to guarantee the right to unionize on Nov.
"A big important state like Illinois enshrining this right to their constitution sends a signal across the country that the right to bargain collectively is a fundamental right," said Daniel Galvin, who teaches political science at Northwestern University and is a faculty fellow at the school’s Institute for Policy Research.
Drea, the AFL-CIO official, said the conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to strip away women’s constitutional right to abortion in June raised worries about what might happen if state lawmakers pass legislation that diminishes or does away with the ability to organize. Smith, of the Illinois Policy Institute, warned that if the Illinois amendment passes, various unions could throw their weight around and force public agencies to make expensive concessions to avoid costly strikes, all of which would drive up the cost of government.
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