(The Center Square) – After 18 months of being rebuffed by House Speaker Emmanuel “Chris” Welch, the Organizing Committee of the Illinois Legislative Staff Association says it’s taking its demands to the court system.

The crux of legislative staffers’ lawsuit is that Amendment 1, a workers’ rights amendment approved by in 2022, enshrines the right for unions to negotiate working conditions, something the speaker has said he supports, in the Constitution. Welch supported the Amendment in 2022.