On November 8, Illinois voters will decide whether to dramatically expand Union negotiating powers to the most extreme in the nation.

If approved Amendment 1 will place four distinct labor provisions into the Illinois Constitution:

1) a “fundamental right” to organize and bargain;

2) the right to bargain over wages, hours, working conditions, and economic welfare and safety at work. The National Labor Relations Act guarantees an employees ability to bargain over wages, hours, and working conditions. However, Amendment 1 will dramatically expand those rights to include an undefined “economic welfare and safety at work”; 

3) a prohibition on lawmakers from interfering with, negating or diminishing those rights;

4) a prohibition against a worker’s ability to choose to be a member of a union.

Should voters approve Amendment 1, it will be the first constitutional provision of its kind in the nation to:

• make organizing and bargaining a “fundamental right”
• mandate negotiations over limitless subjects
• prohibit lawmakers from limiting union power
• constitutionally ban a worker’s ability to choose to be a union member or not.

NFIB opposes the Constitutional change.