Illinois can make right-to-work Illegal by passing the constitutional amendment.

Guarantee the right to collective bargaining.

My drawings and watercolors on Instagram @klonskyart

A dozen or so years ago I was having a couple of beers at a now-closed Logan Square bar with a leader of the state teachers union, the Illinois Education Association.

“The fight for the right to collective bargaining in Illinois is over,” he said to me. “We won.”

“Bullshit,” I said. “There’s way more to collective bargaining than contract negotiations,” I argued. “And many don’t even have that. We have to fight to enforce our collective bargaining agreement every day. That’s part of collective bargain too. I do it with every grievance and phone call I have to make to a board member or administrator ‘reminding’ them what the contract says.”

The state union suit would have none of it. “Our job now is to ensure teacher quality, not fight for collective bargaining,” he insisted.

“This guys incredible,” I thought to myself.

He went on to a job in the Obama administration.

Since that cordial argument over beer at a neighborhood bar we have had the Janus decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that outlawed a union shop.

We also have had a Republican governor who tried (and failed) to get right-to-work laws passed in local towns and school districts.

He could try because the constitutional right to collectively bargaining a contract does not exist in Illinois.

Putting it in our state constitution would go a long way towards making the right to collective bargaining a reality.

Both the state House and Senate have already voted to put the proposal on the Nov. 8 general election ballot. It would be an amendment to Article 1 of the state constitution saying workers have “the fundamental right” to choose collective bargaining by their own representatives and that no law could interfere with those rights.

If passed, Illinois would be among just a handful of states, including Hawaii, New York and Missouri, that guarantee the right to collective bargaining.

The Illinois constitutional amendment would provide a right to collective bargaining And also preempt right-to-work laws that prohibit collective bargaining agreements that require union membership as a condition of employment.

Language preempting right-to-work laws was not included in the state constitutions of Hawaii, Missouri, or New York. Missouri passed a right-to-work law in 2017, and opponents collected signatures to place the right-to-work law on the ballot as a veto referendum. In 2018, voters repealed the right-to-work law.

A constitutional amendment requires 60% voter approval.

Let’s do it.