§ 1.1.9.1 EARLY HISTORY OF THE RIGHT-TO-WORK LAWS.

• Jurisdiction: Arizona

§ 1.1.9.1 Early History of the Right-To-Work Laws. Arizona Constitutional Convention Progressives had attempted to pass a right-to-work provision that would have guaranteed to every citizen the freedom "to obtain employment wherever possible" and making it a misdemeanor to "maliciously interfer[e] or hinder . . . in any way any citizen from obtaining or enjoying employment already obtained."¹⁷⁸ The measure failed because Labor would not support it.¹⁷⁹ Following statehood, the legislature, in 1913, made it a misdemeanor to require a person to enter into a contract not to become a member of a union or to continue union membership as a condition for employment.¹⁸⁰ Several years later, in 1931, the legislature enacted a measure making invalid any agreement not to join a union or to remain a member of a labor or employer's organization.¹⁸¹

With the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Democratic majorities in the Congress in 1932, the New Deal gave Labor the Fair Labor Standards Act,¹⁸² the Norris-LaGuardia Act,¹⁸³ limiting the use of the injunction in strikes, the National Labor Relations Act¹⁸⁴ (the Wagner Act) and, ultimately, control of the Supreme Court. Fostered by New Deal policies, union membership increased nationally from 3 million members in 1932 to 10.2 million in 1941.¹⁸⁵

When America entered World War II, the AFL and Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) entered into a no-strike agreement with Washington in return for a "maintenance of membership" agreement that required all employees in union shops to maintain their union membership for the length of the contract.¹⁸⁶

After World War II, the public's attitude toward organized labor changed dramatically from the early New Deal Era.¹⁸⁷ Labor emerged from World War II as the object of some scorn and resentment because of what was perceived to be...