Restore Our Constitution 

If you care about property taxes, parents’ rights or union powers – and the future of Illinois – you should care about Amendment 1, a referendum on Illinois’ November 2022 ballot.It’s the most important vote Illinoisans will take this election, and perhaps the most important in decades.

READ: https://wirepoints.org/amendment1/

By: Mark Glennon*

Finally, a member of the regular media has called out the fraud being perpetrated over the pending Illinois constitutional amendment that will be on November’s ballot. That’s Amendment 1, the so-called Workers’ Rights Amendment.

Amendment supporters are routinely claiming huge benefits for all Illinois workers would be guaranteed by the new constitutional right the amendment would create to drastically expand collective bargaining rights.

But that’s simply not so, for the reason a new Wall Street Journal editorial states:

The National Labor Relations Act already governs private workers and limits who can bargain about what. Illinois can’t expand the collective-bargaining rights of private employees beyond what federal law allows.

In other words, 86% of Illinois workers – those who work in the private sector – will not be covered by the amendment, despite supporters claims to the contrary.

“Democratic state Sen. Ram Villivalam, who is sponsoring the measure, admitted as much last year,” wrote the WSJ. Amendment 1 “could not apply to the private sector,” Villivalam said on the Illinois Senate floor.

We’ve been writing about the same thing. I emailed Villivalam’s office last week asking for comment on the contradiction between his statement and supporters’ claims. I received no response.

The false claim by amendment supporters is now widespread.

A television ad featuring a private sector nurse talking about the private sector is now running throughout the Chicago area.

A letter in the Chicago Sun-Times by two union chiefs even claimed the amendment would cover private sector workplace safety. The amendment, they wrote, would “ensure that every Illinoisan has access to a safe workplace.”

That’s crazy talk. Workplace safety is covered by OSHA, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act, which is a textbook example of federal preemption that prohibits states from trying to regulate the same field through their constitutions or otherwise.

The big lie is even in the state’s official pamphlet about the amendment that will be printed soon, which contains arguments for and against, the language for which was stipulated by the General Assembly. “This amendment will protect workers’ and others’ safety,” says the argument in favor. Wrong, worker safety is covered by federal OSHA rules; preemption clearly applies. As to what is meant by “others’ safety,” unions would be free to demand pretty much all political matters – anything affecting anybody in the state. The pamphlet’s arguments go on to say the amendment will protect “nurses’ right to put patient care ahead of profit and making sure construction workers can speak up when there’s a safety issue.” Nonsense. That’s covered by federal law and state action in the field is unconstitutional.

The only exceptions where states are allowed to regulate are around the margins, where lawsuits are common – much more litigation can be expected if the amendment passes. Union security agreements may also be regulated by the states, meaning Illinois is free to ban right-to-work efforts, which it already does, and that would be locked in place by the amendment.

What workers would be covered by the amendment?

State and local government workers, that’s who, and that should really have you worried. For them, the state is free to regulate labor matters, and it has done so in great detail.

But Amendment 1 would override all that existing state and local law, replacing it with a sky-is-the-limit constitutional right that has supremacy. Specifically, Amendment 1 would expand eligible collective bargaining subjects to include anything that affects workers’ “economic welfare,” which is pretty much everything, giving government collective bargaining units untold new power.

“If you think teachers unions are powerful now, wait until this passes,” says the Wall Street Journal editorial. The same can be said about the amendment’s power expansion for all public unions in Illinois.

Let’s hope the WSJ editorial sparks a long overdue debate about Amendment 1. So far, Illinois media have all but ignored it.

More importantly, let’s hope voters get educated about the amendment because, as the Wall Street Journal concludes, they “will now have to prevent this union takeover of state government and its dire implications for education and the state economy and public finances.”

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.

Earlier Wirepoints articles with more details on Amendment 1:

• Illinois’ biggest fraud on its voters yet is coming in its official description of proposed constitutional amendment
• Are Workers’ Rights Amendment Supporters Lying In Their Ad, Did They Lie To Legislators Or Lie To The Court?
• Amendment 1 Is Illinois Progressives’ Most Frightening Gambit Yet.
• Supporters of Amendment 1 should get their story straight. Latest double-talk is about workplace safety.
• Advancing an amendment to enshrine union power
• Scope Of Pending Illinois Constitutional Amendment Goes Far Beyond Appearances. It’s A Monstrous Giveaway To Public Unions.
• Illinois lawmakers want to cement union powers into the state constitution
• 
  

*ROC does not endorse candidates, this information was requested by our subscribers and members. We are not a political party.

January 3 marks one year since I was sworn into the United States Congress, representing Illinois' 15th Congressional District. It has been an honor to serve you in 2021 and uphold the America First Agenda!

Throughout the week, I will be sending recaps of my first year in Congress. While there is already so much we have accomplished in just one year, we have only just begun!

In Congress, my number one priority is that my team and I provide the best constituent services possible to the people of Illinois' 15th Congressional District.

This last year, our office resolved over 460 cases and recovered over $5.5 million dollars for constituents including veterans who need help with VA issues, seniors who need assistance with Social Security or Medicare, farmers with questions for the USDA, and anyone who needs assistance with the IRS or federal agencies. 

If you haven't been receiving my regular email updates, make sure to sign up here for my Newsletter to stay updated on what I'm doing in D.C. and back home in Illinois. 

website: https://www.marymillerforcongress.com

David Barton of Wallbuilders speaking to a crowd of over 600 at the Decatur Conference Center and Hotel on Thursday October 5, 2017. Thanks to all of you it was a tremendous success! DVD’s of the event are for sale at our meetings in limited quainties. 

Although groups like the League of Women Voters have long supported the abolition of the electoral college,¹ the protracted proceedings in Florida as well as the apparent disparity between the popular and the electoral college vote have further fueled calls to abolish the electoral college. Critics urge a replacement of the electoral college with a straightforward nationwide popular vote system; and if needed, a national run-off between the top two candidates so that the winner will always receive an absolute majority of the popular vote.²An advocate of this plan, the Center for Voting and Democracy, explains:

http://www.wallbuilders.com/libissuesarticles.asp?id=95

What is the Black Robe Regiment?

Rick is one of the most dynamic and inspirational speakers in America today. Through his informative and moving presentations, that often include his children, he equips, empowers, and challenges people to live out their freedom by teaching the bedrock principles that led to America’s place as the most successful nation in the history of the world.
Read more at http://rickgreen.com/about/

The DVD set is available for purchase at Rick Green’s website and Amazon. The best price we have found is at Christian Book website here: https://www.christianbook.com/constitution-alive-citizens-guide-to-the/9780740334931/pd/388237?product_redirect=1&Ntt=388237&item_code=&Ntk=keywords&event=ESRCP

THIS IS THE WIREBOUND BOOK YOU WILL NEED TO GO WITH THIS DVD SET.  http://store.rickgreen.com/constitution-alive-class-workbooks/

Dr. Herb Titus is an attorney and constitutional expert. Read more about him at his website. Herb Titus

I like this program to be about you and the things that matter to all of us. The one thing that I know that has happened over the 31-plus years of this program is that there has been an incredible bond that has developed between all of you and me. Now, this program’s 31 years old, and in that 31 years, there are people — you hear them call all the time — who have been listening the whole time. They’ve been listening 30 years or 25 years. READ: https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/02/03/rush-shares-his-cancer-diagnosis/