§ 1.1.9.2 THE RIGHT TO WORK CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.

• Jurisdiction: Arizona

§ 1.1.9.2 The Right to Work Constitutional Amendment. Organized labor's fall from public favor led to the passage of the federal Labor Management Relations Act of 1947¹⁹³ (the Taft-Hartley Act), which provided that any state could outlaw closed shop agreements¹⁹⁴ if it chose to do so.¹⁹⁵ Also, employees were given the right to present grievances directly to the employer without the intervention of the union.¹⁹⁶ Under the Taft-Hartley Act, a worker could not be required to join a union if his or her state passed a right-to-work law; in other words, the worker had the right to work without being a union member.

In 1948, after a bitter campaign, the Arizona Constitution was amended¹⁹⁷ by referendum and initiative outlawing the requirement of membership in a labor union as a requisite to working.¹⁹⁸ The implementing legislation which followed made it illegal to strike or picket an employer to "induce an employer to make an agreement orally or in writing" to hire only union labor,¹⁹⁹ or to compel a person to join a union, strike, or leave employment against their will by the use of threats or actual interference with an employee, "his immediate family or his property."²⁰⁰ The Act also prohibited conspiracies to bring about a discharge of an employee or deny employment because of nonunion membership, or to force or induce a worker to join a union.²⁰¹ In addition, it provided injunctive relief for any person injured or threatened with injury by any of the above actions.²⁰² In 1948, the United States Supreme Court held that state legislation prohibiting union shop agreements was valid. Arizona's initiative and referendum and its implementing legislation were declared constitutional by the United States Supreme Court...