With just one day before the midterm election, Memphis political leaders and organizers are making a final push to urge residents to vote “no” on Tennessee Constitutional Amendment 1, or the so-called “right-to-work” amendment.
Currently, Tennessee is a “right-to-work” state and has been since the 1940s. The law protects workers from being denied employment if they choose not to join a union, despite a 75-year-old federal law that already ensures workers have a right to refrain from union membership.
Instead, under Tennessee’s “right-to-work” law, unions are required to represent all employees in a unionized workplace without requiring workers to pay membership dues in return. Essentially, it forces unions to provide workers with the benefits of membership without paying any of the cost, ultimately weakening the power of unions, according to labor organizers.
If Amendment 1 fails and “right-to-work” is not constitutionalized, it will still remain Tennessee law.
In “right-to-work” states, workers earn about $11,000 less per year, the poverty rate is higher at 11%, workers are 12% more likely to be uninsured and workers have a 57% higher risk of dying on the job than people in non-“right-to-work” states, according to AFL-CIO’s Common Sense Economics training program.
At a Nov. 1 press conference, Memphis Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris and Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy urged residents to vote against the “right-to-work”...
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