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

JurisdictionArizona

§ 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...

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