Right to Work Law is Helping Oklahoma Turn Into an Economic Leader

### Sooner State No Longer Exporting Young Employees and Entrepreneurs to Other States

On September 25, 2001, a Right to Work Amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution was adopted. Oklahoma is the 22nd and, at this writing, the latest state to enact a Right to Work law. Oklahoma’s Right to Work law, which bars the extraction of forced union dues and fees from workers as a condition of employment, was the product of years of concentrated effort by thousands of citizens.

When Oklahoma Right to Work legislation was introduced back in 1993, it was supported by just 34 of 101 state representatives and 12 of 48 state senators. Because of Big Labor’s huge clout in Oklahoma City, the forced-unionism status quo seemed to be unassailable. The tide turned only because, from the 1994 through the 2000 elections, 28 pro-forced unionism legislators who had refused to change their positions were replaced by Right to Work supporters.

Almost immediately after the Sooner Right to Work law was adopted, union bosses, who had up to then been shrilly predicting that such a law would swiftly lead to disaster, moved to prevent the law from having any impact at all. When the Right to Work law had been in effect just seven weeks, Big Labor lawyers launched an underhanded bid to overturn it. This legal attack kept the Right to Work law’s future under a cloud for more than two years.