CBA Record March-April 2026

THE YOUNG LAWYERS SECTION

This history indicates a deeply rooted tradition of acknowl edging a right to refuse to work at any time for any reason, either as an individual or with others, without fear of state punishment. That gives the right to quit a spot among the fundamental rights protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. Government Workers’ Autonomy Today, the millions of Americans who have entered the govern ment workforce since the Norris-LaGuardia Act passed are denied this right. While most private sector workers cannot be written up for striking, any federal employee who does so faces up to a year in prison. Similar rules affect some, if not all, categories of government workers in every state. Even in Illinois, whose con stitution guarantees workers’ rights, judges can still enjoin strikes by state workers, leaving those who defy their orders facing a contempt-of-court charge. That is exactly what happened to nurses working for the University of Illinois’ hospital system in 2024, when the state issued an injunction prohibiting hundreds of them from going on strike. Although these provisions would go against any constitutional right to quit, good public policy reasons could still support them. For example, one reason government employers assert for keep ing the status quo is that their managerial decisions represent the decisions of the people, and government employees should not be able to challenge them by striking. However, everyone has the freedom to challenge government decisions they disagree with, including those who work for the government. Another poten tial reason posits that government workers should not be allowed to interfere with the government’s ability to provide public ser vices. By that logic, though, any government worker who did not do their job would be interfering with government services and could be held criminally liable. Health and Safety Arguments The most salient argument against government workers’ auton omy is that some classes of government workers must be banned from striking to protect public health and safety: Most commonly,

these apply to police officers, firefighters, and healthcare work ers. For instance, the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act requires government employers to show that a strike would constitute “a clear and present danger to the health and safety of the public” to get judges to block strikes against them. While this logic would still technically give the government permission to prosecute any firefighter who exercised their freedom to stop working, it is true that the government has a responsibility to keep people safe. But the government can do that without sending public health and safety workers to jail. Public health and safety workers can still maintain their right to quit, and the government, in extreme cases, can exercise its right to fire health and safety workers who go on strike if cer tain striking workers endanger the public by refusing to do their jobs. That balance keeps people safe while also making it safe for workers to work or not work as they see fit so they can protect themselves from being exploited on the job. Moving Forward At a time when American workers are embattled by a faltering economy and the long-term erosion of workplace rights, it’s more important now than ever to respect workers’ role in the national economy. That starts with acknowledging a basic real ity: If people don’t work, nothing else does. A legal system that denies any worker their right to quit runs the risk of ignoring this country’s past mistakes and dragging us back to a world we chose to abandon with the enactment of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments.

AK Alilonu, a former City of Chicago employee, is a labor lawyer with the Illinois Nurses Association, where he represents healthcare workers in management disputes.

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