From today’s CBS Chicago Online:
You may be hearing some talk about a so-called Workers’ Rights Amendment on the November ballot in Illinois.
But what does it actually do? CBS 2 Political Investigator Dana Kozlov reported depending on whom you ask, it would either empower workers or give unions too much power.
Giving Illinois workers the constitutional right to unionize is now Amendment No. 1 on the November ballot. Those in favor of it, like Joe Bowen with Vote Yes for Workers’ Rights, have billed in the Workers’ Rights Amendment.
“The Workers’ Rights Amendment will also protect Illinois workers from politicians who try to pass anti-worker laws in the future,” Bowen said.
The amendment would specifically “guarantee workers the 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.”
“This applies to all workers in Illinois – it was written that way deliberately – and it applies to public- and private-sector employees,” Bowen said.
But critics, like Austen Berg with the conservative Illinois Policy Institute, claim its passage would be a big hit to taxpayers.
Read the complete story here.