By Peter Hancock

Illinois voters will be asked in November to decide whether the right of workers to form unions and engage in collective bargaining should be enshrined in the state constitution.

The first clause of the amendment contains two sentences. The first would establish a “fundamental right to organize and to bargain collectively and to negotiate wages, hours, and working conditions, and to promote their economic welfare and safety at work.”

The second would prohibit the state or any local unit of government from enacting “any law that interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively over their wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment and workplace safety.”

The provision is intended to prevent passage of any state or local “right to work” laws, which prohibit employers from requiring workers to be union members to keep their jobs.

The second clause states that the amendment would be controlling over another part of the constitution that spells out the powers of home rule units of local government, meaning those units of government would still be subject to the amendment.

Lawmakers approved putting the measure on the ballot during the 2021 spring session. The resolution passed both chambers with bipartisan support: 49-7 in the Senate and 80-30 in the House.

Like any constitutional issue, however, there is considerable disagreement over what those words mean and what effects they would have if the amendment were adopted.

The proposal is supported by several large labor unions, but it has drawn opposition from groups such as the Illinois Association of School Boards, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association.

To gather a sense of the arguments for and against the measure, the Illinois Associated Press Media Editors convened an online forum with Joe Bowen, communications director for a Vote Yes for Workers Rights, the only organized political committee campaigning on the issue. They also spoke with Mailee Smith, director of labor policy and a staff attorney with the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative think tank that opposes the measure.