Print this article 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.