Days after print publication, Bill Knight’s syndicated newspaper column, which moves twice a week, will appear here. The most recent will appear at the top. (Columns before Sep. 11, 2017, are archived at http://billknightcolumn.blogspot.com/).

Tuesday, July 5, 2022

State AFL-CIO launches central Illinois campaign for Workers Rights Amendment

Illinois AFL-CIO president Tim Drea and Secretary-Treasurer Pat Devaney appeared at the Peoria Labor Temple last nonth, when they started building area support for the Workers Rights Amendment that will be on the November ballot.

“Despite Illinois becoming a state more than 200 years ago, there’s nothing in the state constitution about workers rights,” Drea said.

State Sen. Dave Koehler (D-Peoria) prefaced Drea’s remarks with a reminder that workers bore the brunt of Republican Bruce Rauner’s efforts to break organized labor in Illinois, from supporting local “Right To Work” ordinances to holding the state budget hostage for about two years.

“That especially hurt social services and education,” Koehler said. “And you might think, well, now we have a Democratic governor and a [Democratic] supermajority in the legislature. But you never know when you will get another Rauner.

“A constitutional amendment will protect workers from that.”

Protecting workers – whether or not they’re members of labor unions – is the proposed amendment’s bottom line, Drea said.

“At the end of the day, the Workers Rights Amendment will be good for everybody,” he said, “ – everybody who goes to work. It’s protection. And with your help, we’re going to do it, together.”

To pass, the Workers Rights Amendment needs either 60% of votes cast on the ballot measure itself or a simple majority of all of those voting in the entire election.

“We’re getting ready for the inevitable attacks,” Drea said. “To blunt those attacks, we have to counter the lies we expect on TV and radio and your mailboxes.”

To succeed – and to build on existing support for labor – will take a people-to-people approach, he added.

“It means workers listening to co-workers,” he said. “Vote for yourself and job safety. Vote for your kids to have a better life.”

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