Workers’ Rights Amendment will ensure a CHOICE for a VOICE

Recent attacks on the Workers’ Rights Amendment on November’s ballot are flawed or false, claiming it will cost taxpayers, unleash a flood of unionized workplaces, and result in new labor contracts always favorable to workers.

If voters OK the measure Nov. 8, there may indeed be some pent-up demand to organize without illegal retaliation (which says a lot), but the proposed amendment would not guarantee unionization, much less any labor agreements, one-sided or not.

First, if workers unionize, they’d have to bargain, which isn’t easy; law-abiding employers aren’t pushovers. Next, it would do two main things: prevent unscrupulous employers from violating the law, and protect workers’ right to VOTE on representation.

Sometimes a majority of a company’s workers vote to not unionize – but they’d have a CHOICE.

The amendment somewhat echoes federal law, but that’s because the National Labor Relations Act too often ignores or barely punishes law-breakers. Besides, workers don’t want to bankrupt companies. We need employers almost as much as they need us.

And, sure, it’s possible some workers could strike, but employers also could still lock out workers – as Major League Baseball owners did this spring.

Finally, the state legislature in a rare, overwhelming bipartisan vote, last year approved the amendment 80-30 in the House and 49-7 in the Senate, perhaps reflecting the public’s growing respect for labor (shown in Gallup’s recent poll that 71% of us support – the highest approval in 57 years and close to the all-time high of 75% in the 1950s), or recognizing what was confirmed by University of Illinois/ Illinois Economic Policy Institute researchers, as the Labor Paper reported last month. Their study shows that the Workers’ Rights Amendment would improve the state’s economy and ease the financial burden on Illinois taxpayers. Better wages for workers translates to increased state income-tax revenues and less reliance on (and reduced government spending for) social safety-net programs.

But a string of commentaries against the Workers’ Rights Amendment has been distributed by the Illinois Policy Institute.

“Groups like the Illinois Policy Institute, who seek to destroy unions and eliminate our rights, are behind this spreading of misinformation,” Illinois Federation of Teachers Dan Montgomery warned Illinoisans. “They try to tap into your biggest fears and cast doubt on the work we do.”

Funded by $1 million from Richard Uihlein – who the Chicago Tribune describes as a “conservative megadonor and businessman, the CEO of packing and shipping firm Uline” – the Right-wing think tank set up the “Vote No on Amendment 1” campaign.

It’s featured IPI’s Mailee Smith writing, “Amendment 1 is a potential property tax hike in disguise.”

“Disguise”? Workers have no motivation to raise their own taxes, much less to drive their employers out of business.

Elsewhere, IPI’s Adam Schuster stressed Big Business’ fanciful worst-case scenario, writing that the amendment would be “granting the public sector powers to make limitless demands of the public treasury, i.e., taxpayers.”

Nonsense. “Power”? Unions’ political contributions to candidates are dwarfed by corporate donations.

Schuster added that the Workers’ Rights Amendment would be “a back-door way for government unions to control public policy through their contracts [and] the treasury.”

Ridiculous. Citizens can always vote for different politicians to negotiate even more forcefully with public-sector unions.

Such predictions are flimsy scare tactics. If such mouthpieces of the rich and powerful could issue useful, truthful forecasts, where were their essays warning of Russia’s invasion triggering shortages and worldwide inflation, or the dangers of cryptocurrency?

(One can imagine their fear-mongering if they’d been around when women’s right to vote was proposed.)

Once more, the proposed amendment would add a section to the Bill of Rights Article of the Illinois Constitution that would 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. The new amendment would also prohibit from being passed any new 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 Workers’ Rights Amendment will also protect the rights of Illinois workers from being attacked by politicians and special interests pushing anti-worker laws that drive down wages and ignore workplace safety, which could happen, if recent state legislation or court rulings are an indication.

Frank Manzo IV of the competing Illinois Economic Policy Institute noted the uncertainty of what future regimes might do. The vulnerability of existing norms has been shown in actions such as the U.S. Supreme Court’s upending decades of “settled law” on everything from voting rights to the precedent of requiring people benefiting from union contracts to contribute to the costs of representation.

“[It’s] similar to recent decisions on reproductive rights at the Supreme Court level that have taken away rights that have long been held by a certain segment of the population and saying it's kind of up to the states,” he said. “Should that happen for this segment of the population called workers, and rights are taken away at the federal level, or at least removed as being a federal right, or even if Congress were to just get rid of the National Labor Relations Act in a couple months, this [Amendment] would be an answer at the state level.”

A state constitutional amendment would be a safeguard if federal protections are ever repealed.

Opposition would inadvertently signal approval of employers breaking federal laws to discourage workers from even voting for a union.

“Corporations that put profits over people have no shame in revealing who they really are through their heartless union busting, illegal bargaining tactics, and divisive political attacks,” said Robert G. Reiter, President of the Chicago Federation of Labor. “Make no mistake about it, these forces are just wolves in sheep’s clothing. The right to organize and collectively bargain is square in the crosshairs of these anti-worker forces.”

Plan to vote. And share your thoughts with neighbors who aren’t in unions – the Workers’ Rights Amendment would create a guaranteed VOTE and CHOICE for everyday people.

Again, the Workers’ Rights Amendment won’t cost Illinoisans; it will benefit us all.

Bailey’s new wedge issue is a non-issue wedgie

Campaigning for Illinois governor, Republican state Sen. Darren Bailey has core issues: for education, agriculture, lower taxes and term limits; against crime, abortion, gun restrictions and pandemic mandates.

Now he wants his own mandate: university enrollments.

“Bailey’s recent ‘kitchen table’ policy proposal is to require the University of Illinois’ flagship campus in Urbana-Champaign to guarantee 90% of its enrollment is made up of Illinois residents,” wrote Capitol Fax insider Rich Miller. “Other states have similar requirements mainly because of pressure from parents, and many of those folks live in the suburbs.”

Suburban voters are key in statewide elections. Republican buddy Jim Nowlan, a former GOP state lawmaker, told Politico he thinks Bailey could get 40% of the vote in a lot of the state but not in areas where he’s made “insensitive comments about Chicago, which many suburbanites find unconstructive.”

Indeed, one suspects Bailey’s out-of-right-field issue is less about fairness or a sense of a return on taxpayers’ investment in higher education than creating a sense of resentment that some families aren’t getting the preferential treatment they seek, or – who knows? – keeping Blue State residents or international students out.

Suggesting he could get the legislature to buy in, Bailey said, “Our state’s schools should be for our state’s students. Ensuring our students have access to a great education shouldn’t be controversial.”

OK, but how would the scheme work? Withhold state support if UIUC doesn’t meet his goal? Force UIUC to lower academic standards or in-state tuition/fees (and presumably hiking out-of-state costs)?

Will a Bailey administration send State Troopers to admissions offices like some Prairie State Border Patrol supervising applications and acceptances?

The University of Illinois is a top-tier university that contributes far more to the country than cannon fodder for a fickle job market. And, face it, it’s a non-issue for most of us. After all, 70.7% of UIUC freshmen this year are from Illinois (5,627 students), the university reported Sept. 8. The next-highest group is from other countries (1,335), followed by California (274). In west-central Illinois, two public universities have substantial Illinois enrollments: Illinois State University reports 95.8% of its first-time students this fall are from Illinois; Western Illinois University says 88.8% of its freshmen class this year are Illinoisans.

UIUC Associate Chancellor Robin Kaler told WBBM radio the “biggest challenge” is that many Illinois students can’t afford it. Indeed, UIUC’s in-state tuition and fees cost $16,866 a year, U.S. News reported last month. (However, out-of-state students pay more than double that: $34,316.)

Increased funding (meaning tax support) is less an option than “doing more with less,” Bailey implied Aug. 31.

“The answer with the University of Illinois is not adding more taxes, it’s making the school more efficient. Money is being wasted,” said Bailey, who earned an associate degree at the two-year Lakeland College in Mattoon before launching a private Christian school and serving on the board of education at a public school district south of Effingham.

Maybe. Most schools seem top-heavy, from national universities such as UIUC to K-12 Districts in many communities. But will screening applicants or instituting some sort of “affirmative action” to ensure 90% quotas are met by 2026 solve spending?

Further, college isn’t for everyone anyway. Besides the cost, higher education – even state-supported universities – may offer less meaningful life preparation than community colleges, trade schools or union apprenticeships.

It’s likely Bailey’s proposed dictum is just a clumsy attempt to appeal to aggrieved suburban voters whose kids “settled” for SIU/Edwardsville, EIU, etc.

“Bailey is gonna need infinitely more than this to overcome his geographical and ideological deficits,” Miller said.

A SAFE SPACE: built with love - in a home, a family and a community

 CHILLICOTHE – At press time, a few shows remain in the Blue Ridge Community Farm’s fall concert series, but there’s no end in sight for Jim and Laura Sniff’s activities – or the love behind it..

A self-described “farm kid” from rural Dunlap, 65-year-old Jim tried college, traveled some, and settled in the area, where he’s invested in and manages properties. Laura, 55, grew up in Chicagoland and thought about teaching and tried sales. Like most lives, theirs took a few unexpected turns, and when their son Jimmy was born 23 years ago, the family faced his developmental issues.

 

They eventually took it as inspiration.

 

Seated at a shaded picnic table near their back door on morning, Laura shrugs, smiles and says, “It was a God moment,” and Jim smiles, an honest-to-God twinkle in his eyes.

 

Jim comes across as a problem-solver, an backyard engineer planning how to move a metal shed intact for miles to a pasture analytic, tackling a hillside that needs clearing, or conjuring how to renovate a 125-year-old barn.

 

Laura seems to be an empathetic dreamer who sometimes thinks, “What if…?

 

Together, they share ideas and visions, each stirred by Jimmy and special-needs challenges that they’ve tried to meet in with honesty, generosity and joy.

 

More than a dozen years back, the Sniffs took a pleasant if overgrown farm and turned it around, upside down and inside out. Eventually, a Dunlap teacher suggested bringing a class when the farm “had just a sandbox and a swing set,” Jim says. “The kids loved it.”

 

It ended up offering promise, a process using kindness to connect.

Today, dozens of group homes, schools and other organizations experience the farm, some 1,500 people a year, many with special needs

“Folks come and there is a lot of interactions and learning.”

The 240-acre farm has 4 1/2 miles of trails for walking in the woods, hay fields or valleys.

Nearby, a paint horse named Sugar ambles around a corral. Chickens walk and peck, several alpacas and a donkey graze, and two dogs peer out of a pen, wagging their tails. All of them get excited when people arrive.

“Our field trips include interacting with all of the animals, making crafts,” Laura says. “We want the children and adults to have fun and enjoy the farm. We meet them where they're at.”

Although Jimmy now lives in a group home, and the Sniffs’ daughter is in Wisconsin, the couple is far from “empty nesters.” There’s a stream of people, from field trips to curious folks who become benefactors. 

 

Besides busloads, individual visitors vary, like federal judge Joe Billy McDade, local promoter Jerry Kolb, more than 150 people from Caterpillar assisting an operation helped by a few grants and some donations, and innumerable people with special needs who bring or find special moments here: “Hugs,” Jim says. “Breakthroughs.

 

“I remember turning around once and noticing some kids sitting around with no phones, no video games, just laughing and playing, like kids.”

 

The farm project expanded into retail when the Sniffs bought Picket Fence on 4^th Street in Chillicothe and added more love.

 

“There aren’t a lot of jobs for special-needs people after they’re done with school,” Laura says. “I read that Illinois is 47^th in the country for opportunities for them.”

 

Also a 501(c)3 not-for-profit foundation, Picket Fence is a garden center, floral and gift shop, and informal lending library on special-needs issues that “focuses on what special-needs people CAN do, not what they can’t,” Laura says.

 

Five developmentally disabled employees work there, doing inventory and pricing, re-stocking and handling displays, talking to shoppers and running the register – and others have creations showcased and selling at the store’s Ability Marketplace and Ability Crafts counters.

 

The goods come from all over the country, says Laura, adding, “There are a lot of entrepreneurs out there, and they and the employees are thriving.”

As for the weekend concerts, they’re on a grassy slope leading to a modest stage near a creek bordered by timber a short stroll from the house and barn. Shows start at 2 p.m., and they’re free – although the Stiffs ask people to register at www.blueridgecommunityfarm.org to get a ticket.

The setting is comfortable, a venue with fine sound and some special-needs vendors offering various products (refreshments are Bring Your Own).

“The concerts are relaxing, family-friendly – especially people with special needs,” Jim says. “We want everybody to feel welcome.”

Over the years, attendance has ranged from several dozen to more than 700.

This month, performers on Oct. 2 will be recording artists Deep Hollow Projekts and the high-energy folk group Good Morning Bedlam. On Oct. 9, Michigan singer-songwriter May Erlewine and the Americana duo  Stone & Snow (Karen Bridges and Clint Thomson) will play. Sarah Marie Dillard is hosting the shows.

(If it rains, get updates at https://www.blueridgecommunityfarm.org or  https://www.facebook.com/blueridgecommunityfarm.)

The Sniffs are unpaid but feel rewards they share with people who too often are forgotten, ignored or worse.

Jim dismisses praise.

“We just try to let people know they can do all kinds of things and to help them feel loved.”

 

How to help

To bring a group, visit or volunteer, or to contribute in other ways, Laura says, “If people would like to donate online, they can visit our website at www.blueridgecommunityfarm.org.”

 Like Scouts, church groups and service organizations have done, volunteering starts by emailing contact information to blueridgecommunityfarm@gmail.com.

Donations by mail:

Blue Ridge Community Farm

21529 N. Blue Ridge Rd.

Chillicothe, IL 61523

Illinois' Workers’ Rights Amendment won’t cost; it will pay off, study shows

Taxes for everyday Illinoisans would not go up because the proposed Workers Rights Amendment is passed by voters Nov. 8. In fact, the financial burden on taxpayers would decline, according to a new study by researchers from the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The Workers’ Rights Amendment would improve the state’s economy and boost incomes and better  working conditions for workers, according to the study, which adds that union workers are less likely to rely on public aid than their non-union counterparts, and they contribute 8% more to state income taxes.

“The data shows that the Workers’ Rights Amendment would protect Illinois’ competitive advantage for essential workers,” said Frank Manzo IV, executive director for the Illinois Economic Policy Institute (IEPI) and one of the report’s authors. “Construction workers, police officers, first responders, teachers, Registered Nurses all earn between 5% and 35% more in Illinois, and they’re also more likely to have health insurance and to own their homes in Illinois.”

Compared to states without the right to collectively bargain and share the costs of representation, such as Iowa and Kentucky, Illinois’ workers on average earn 15% higher incomes (more than $7,000 per year) and are 5% more likely to have health-insurance coverage, research shows. They also are more likely to own their homes, less likely to live in poverty, and 32% less likely to lose their lives due to preventable accidents on-the-job.

By passing the Workers’ Rights Amendment – preventing future efforts to weaken collective bargaining – voters “can protect an estimated $43 billion in earned income for workers, health-insurance coverage for nearly 300,000 workers, and prevent as many as 90 on-the-job fatalities each year,” Manzo said.

Paul Pater, a Registered Nurse with the Illinois Nurses Association, told Chicago public radio that the amendment would help both private- and public-sector workers “feel more secure, more safe” in their jobs. He said being part of a union helped him and his colleagues win higher wages and lead to “direct safety initiatives, things like ensuring we have enough respirators at work, enough safety equipment during COVID … to keep our people safe and keep our patients safe.”

The Workers’ Rights Amendment would give power to workers, not corporations, Pater continued.

It “just provides a boon to those workers who are concerned that they’re going to be fired for trying to organize a workplace, for standing up for themselves, for demanding better wages and safer working conditions,” he added.

In analyzing the Workers’ Rights Amendment’s potential impacts on Illinois, researchers compared economic and workforce outcomes between union and nonunion workers across the state, as well as between Illinois and the 27 states that have passed state laws to weaken unions.

“Our analysis reveals that unions not only deliver higher wages and better benefits for Illinois workers relative to their nonunion peers, but that they are substantially better for public budgets,” Manzo said.

The economic impacts of protecting workers’ rights are not limited to workers. On average, the economies of “free rider” states – where lawmakers prohibit labor agreements requiring those represented by unions to share in the costs of negotiating and enforcing contracts – grew 3% slower and their annual workforce productivity was 18% lower than states that support collective bargaining rights. The data also shows that collective bargaining is a good value for taxpayers because higher wages for workers translate to increased tax revenues and less reliance (and reduced government spending) on social safety-net programs.

Specifically, the study’s analysis of Illinois workers  without advanced degrees shows the benefits of union membership for those who vote for representation:

* Payroll taxes (union workers contribute $11,606; non-union workers $10,951)

* Percent below poverty (union 2.5%; non-union 5.9%)

* Percent on Medicaid (union 2.7%; non-union 6.2%)

* Percent on food stamps (union 2.4%; non-union 4.4%)

* Percent needing the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) (union 6.7%; non-union 9.1%)

 

Ultimately, by preventing state politicians from ever enacting laws weakening workers’ rights, researchers predicted the Workers’ Rights Amendment could play an important role in protecting the state’s relatively higher wages, benefits, and safety standards.

Fewer people needing assistance from the state means less of a burden on public funds derived from taxes.

If attack ads and disinformation cause voters to reject the proposed amendment, and Illinois’ labor market becomes like “free-rider” states that don’t support collective bargaining, the statewide consequences would be significant, the study shows:

* Inflation-adjusted annual incomes statewide would fall $43 billion
* About 281,000 workers would lose health insurance coverage
* The number of workers who own homes would drop 134,700
* More than 70,000 workers would fall below the poverty rate
* There would be almost 900 more on-the-job fatalities in the next decade

 

 “At a time when Americans don’t seem to agree on much, public polling has shown historic levels of bipartisan support for unions and the protection of collective bargaining rights,” Manzo said.

Indeed, the state legislature’s overwhelming bipartisan approval of the amendment (passing 80-30 in the House and 49-7 in the Senate) reflects that – and political and public support is bolstered by statistics.

“Our study shows that these opinions are not only well-founded, but they are also overwhelmingly supported by real-world economic data,” Manzo said. “Data shows that when states support collective bargaining, the economy does better and job quality is higher. Workers earn more,  are more likely to have health insurance, and are more likely to own their homes. It’s also better for public budgets, and [for] the economic imperatives of higher growth, fewer labor shortages, more productivity and better safety outcomes on the job site.”