Tennessee voters will decide this November whether to add the state’s right-to-work statute to the state constitution, laying groundwork to resist a federal repeal effort. 

The amendment proposal follows the House of Representatives’ passage of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, a measure to repeal 27 states’ right-to-work laws, including Tennessee’s.

Right-to-work laws prohibit labor unions from making arrangements with employers to force non-union employees to pay union dues to support union representation. Such laws protect individual workers’ decisions on whether to join a union and pay dues, and have for nearly 80 years. 

While 27 states have passed right-to-work laws since 1944, just seven have constitutional protections against forced unionism. Tennessee’s right-to-work statute was first adopted in 1947. If the proposed amendment is successful, the Volunteer State would become the second state to add such a provision to the state constitution since 1960. 

Proponents of the amendment say it would send a message to Washington that right-to-work policies should be left up to the states. While a state constitutional amendment cannot preempt federal law, it could bolster legal footing for a challenge on constitutional grounds should Congress pass the PRO Act. 

A member of the Yes On 1 executive committee advocating for the amendment’s passage, Justin Owen, tells the Sun: “While it is true that the Supremacy Clause generally means that federal laws trump state laws, including state constitutional provisions, it doesn’t mean that just because Congress passes a law that they had the constitutional authority to do so in the first place.”

He added: “By recognizing right-to-work as a fundamental, constitutional right here in Tennessee, we might better be able to protect this right against federal overreach like what is included in the PRO Act and other anti-worker freedom legislation coming out of Washington.”

Tennessee’s governor, Bill Lee, and a former governor, Bill Haslam, also members of the committee, say Tennessee’s right-to-work policy has fueled the state’s success in job recruitment and economic growth. 

“Our right-to-work law has been a key ingredient in the effort to bring high-wage jobs to Tennessee,” Mr. Haslam said in a video released by the committee. “We’ve had a lot of success recruiting jobs to Tennessee — it’s a great place to live, a great place to work — but one of the fundamental reasons is because we’re a right-to-work state, and we need to stay that way.” 

The effort is not likely to be much of an uphill climb. A poll of 500 likely general election voters conducted last January by Cygnal found that 64 percent of Tennesseans would vote to add the statute to the state constitution, while 18 percent would vote against it. 

“The poll results prove what Tennesseans already know: that right-to-work is critical to jobs and opportunity in our state,” the president of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and another member of the statewide committee, Bradley Jackson, said. “Amendment 1 will help keep our foot on the gas when it comes to job creation in Tennessee.”

While the first state constitutional amendments protecting right-to-work were adopted in 1944, the federal Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 made a nationwide ban on “closed shop” policies that forced private employees to join a union as a condition of employment. By the end of that year, 11 states passed right-to-work laws. 

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public sector unions may not force federal, state, or local government employees to pay union dues as a condition of working in public service. 

Now, Congress is considering overriding state right-to-work statutes. This spring, the House passed H.R. 842, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, proposed by Congressman Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat. 

The PRO Act would allow private-sector labor unions to require all employees to pay union dues, regardless of whether state statute prohibits the practice. It also would expand protections for those who participate in strikes, and allow unions to encourage secondary strikes — participation in strikes initiated by other unions. 

The measure would prohibit employers from suing unions that conduct secondary strikes. It would also implement California’s AB5 law nationwide, considering all workers, including contractors and freelancers, to be full-fledged employees unless they satisfy a stringent three-prong test. 

President Biden supports the PRO Act, calling unions “critical to strengthening our economic competitiveness.” 

“All of us deserve to enjoy America’s promise in full — and our nation’s leaders have a responsibility to deliver it. That starts with rebuilding unions,” Mr. Biden said before the House vote in March. 

Tennessee lawmakers noted the federal effort to overrule state law before votes to place the proposal on the statewide ballot. 

“What we’re doing right now in Tennessee is working,” Mr. Lee said. “Right-to-work is common sense. And with federal efforts to repeal it nationwide, it’s time for Tennesseans to speak up.”