By a better than 2-to-1 margin, Tennessee voters Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment to enshrine the state’s right-to-work law in the state constitution, making it more difficult for future legislatures to change how workers who decide to join a union can collect union dues.
Backers of Amendment 1 on Tuesday’s ballot for the right-to-work provision in the constitution said its adoption underscores Tennessee’s pro-business environment. Tennessee joins eight other states that have such right-to-work provisions in their state constitutions to limit unions from collecting dues for representation from nonunion members even if a majority of workers at a business vote to join the union.
“I think the message that we had really resonated with voters that it is a fundamental right that you can’t be compelled to join or support a union as a condition of where you work,” Bradley Jackson, president of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Wednesday during a Tennessee Manufacturing Roadshow in Cleveland, Tennessee. “We’re very, very pleased with the outcome, and I think it really solidifies the message that Tennessee is one of the best states in the country in terms of our business climate.”
But labor union leaders who fought against the amendment said Wednesday they think many voters were confused by the language of the proposal and discounted its significance because Tennessee already had a right-to-work law on its books for the past 75 years.