For decades, “right to work” laws have protected workers’ individual liberties across the states. Last month, the General Assembly in Illinois passed Senate Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 11, which places a proposed amendment to the Illinois Constitution on the ballot in November 2022 to ban Illinois from enacting right-to-work laws in the future, a move that would tie the hands of future elected officials and further cement our status as a state with an anti-business approach.

Right-to-work laws protect the basic rights of employees to choose whether or not it is in their best interest to join a union, without that membership being a condition of their employment. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, from 2001 to 2016, right-to-work states experienced substantially better job growth and economic output compared to non-right-to-work states. Workers in right-to-work states also saw their personal incomes grow at a higher rate.