You should know that in the upcoming general election on November 8th, you will have the opportunity to vote on four (4) proposed amendments to the Tennessee Constitution. I will address the other three at another time. Here, I am writing about Right to Work, which will appear as Constitutional Amendment #1 on the ballot.
Let me first be very clear. I fully support the fact that Tennessee is a right to work state and has been since 1947. I do believe that our statutes declaring a right to work have been part of Tennessee’s success story economically and I believe that those statutes appropriately limit the power of unions and protect the rights of individuals against discrimination as to whether or not they are part of a labor union. I am also aware that Democrats and the current administration in the White House would like to further solidify the influence of unions around the country and work to abolish right to work protections in 27 states.
Despite my support of right to work protections and an understanding of the threat unions pose to pushing the leftist agenda, I am cautious when it comes to amending our state constitution for this purpose.
Consideration #1: Putting this amendment in our state constitution will NOT protect our right to work laws from the actions of Congress.
Right to work is essentially protection from discrimination. These protections are not found in our constitution, but appropriately found in statute. Consider that civil rights protections from the 1964 Civil Rights Act are not enshrined in our state constitution. Also consider that protections for the disabled found in the 1991 Americans with Disabilities Act are not enshrined in our constitution. They are found in our state statute and supported by acts of Congress.
One of the reasons being given by the “Yes on 1” committee to support this amendment is that we must secure this right in our state constitution to preempt any pending federal action from a Democrat-controlled White House that wants to remove right to work protections in states.
Please hear this. Any laws passed by Congress are the supreme law of the land according to our U.S. Constitution. If any section of our state constitution is found to be in conflict with an act of Congress, then that section would be held unconstitutional. more here