Tennesseans must hear all sides before committing to 'right to work' | Opinion

Amendment 1, a proposed constitutional amendment that would enshrine Tennessee’s harmful “Right to Work” law into a sacred document for generations, is on the ballot Nov. 8.

As the election quickly approaches, the corporate special interest groups who have been charged with convincing the public to vote against their own interests will be regularly posting misleading and purposely confusing content to convince Tennesseans that “Right to Work” is anything but detrimental to Tennessee’s working families.

In a recent op-ed filled more with buzzwords and misrepresentations than actual content, lobbyists for the NFIB Tennessee, the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce, and the Beacon Center of Tennessee do little more than recycle the same tired points they’ve had on repeat since Amendment 1 was just a resolution in the legislature.

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Getting both sides

First, the authors want you to believe that at-will employment and “Right to Work” laws are two separate policies.

However, the lack of an employment contract, which is much more difficult to create in states with “Right to Work” laws, makes them one and the same.

For something as simple as your boss not liking your hair color, you can be fired and left without a job. They don’t need cause or due process to cut ties.

Contracts against at-will employment come from collective bargaining between workers and companies, and “Right to Work” cripples efforts to make this possible.

The authors constantly recite data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggesting non-union workers recently received larger pay increases than unionized workers. They want us to believe that “Right to Work” states don’t consistently have lower wages across the board.

They’re lying to you, but they aren’t even trying very hard.

The very same source shows that unionized workers are paid more per hour than non-unionized workers, by nearly every metric available.

Of course a pay increase would appear smaller.

That’s because union workers are already making more money by comparison.

If they were stating the truth (as they claim they are), the authors wouldn’t have to cherry-pick certain statistics to promote and others to hide.

The authors also claim that approving Amendment 1 wouldn’t make it harder to organize.

However, by enshrining the law into the state constitution, it essentially gives greedy corporate elites the green light to push union-busting even further than they already do in order to cripple efforts of workers to band together.

The piece concludes by calling the sanctity of our constitution a myth and fear-mongering about President Biden and Washington, D.C.

The authors want to suggest that putting Tennessee’s “Right to Work” law into the constitution is just as important and extraordinary as lifting the ban on interracial marriage or the abolition of slavery.

It should be noted that Tennessee's "Right to Work" law has already been on the books and unchallenged for 75 years, even when Democrats controlled the legislature.

Clearly, they couldn’t care less about the constitution, just whatever will net them a fat paycheck from their corporate bosses.

Their lack of reverence for our state’s most sacred document is laughable, and to equate this partisan panic to Tennesseans’ status as equal people under the law is inexcusable.

If the folks behind Yes on 1 truly wanted to protect worker freedom, they wouldn’t lie to our faces.

If they were in the right, they wouldn’t have to manipulate data to make themselves look good.

This November, stand up to their underhanded tactics and vote NO on Amendment 1.

Eric Coons is the BM/FST for UA Local 572 and the president of the Nashville Building Trades.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why 'right to work' leaves Tennessee workers without support