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Eastern Oklahoma Building & Construction Trades Council v. Pitts12/16/2003
__ P.3d __
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
In September 2001 the people of Oklahoma approved at a special election State Question 695, a referendum submitted to them by a Joint Resolution of the Oklahoma Legislature. Upon its approval by the people, SQ 695 immediately amended the Oklahoma Constitution by adding Art. 23, § 1A. This new provision is usually either called the "right to work law" or the "right to work amendment."
In November 2001, several labor organizations and a pipeline company sued then Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma seeking a declaration that the right to work law was unconstitutional. Later, Oklahomans for Jobs and Justice, a supporter of right to work, and three individual Oklahoma citizens, who were represented by the National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation, intervened as defendants. One of the intervenors in the federal court action is the intervenor here, Stephen L. Weese.
The federal district court rejected most of the unions' claims but held that two subsections of the right to work amendment, § 1A(B)(5) and (C), were preempted as to workers covered by the National Labor Relations Act. The federal district court entered an order and final judgment on June 5, 2002, Local 514, Transport Workers of America, et al. v. Keating, et al., 212 F.Supp.2d 1319 (E.D. Okla. 2002). The unions appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, which held that in addition to the sections of the right to work amendment the federal district court had held to be preempted by federal law, § 1A(B)(1) was also preempted. The 10th Circuit then certified questions of state law to this court, which we answered in Local 514, Transport Workers of America v. Keating, 2003 OK ___, ___ P.3d ___ . Appellant here, Eastern Oklahoma Building & Construction Trades Council, filed an amicus curiae brief in this Court in which it made essentially the same arguments it presents here.
On May 13, 2003, the Council filed suit in the District Court of Tulsa County from which this appeal emanates. The Council claims that the right to work amendment is itself unconstitutional because it violates several other provisions of the Oklahoma Constitution. Both the Council and Weese filed motions for summary judgment. The parties agree that there are no disputed issues of material fact involved in this litigation and that disposition of this matter at the summary judgment stage was appropriate. As noted earlier, the trial court denied the Council's motion for summary judgment and granted Weese's motion for summary judgment.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
In 1947 congress passed § 14(b) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 164(b), which specifically authorized states to prohibit agreements between unions and employers requiring membership in a union as a condition of employment. Similarly, § 8 of the same Act, 29 U.S.C. § 158, provided, in effect, that a worker can't be fired for non-membership in a union if the worker's non-membership results from the worker's refusal to pay union dues. Later the United States Supreme Court declared that § 14(b) was constitutional in the companion cases of Lincoln Federal Labor Union No. 19129, A.F. of L. v. Northwestern Iron & Metal Co., 335 U.S. 525, 69 S.Ct. 251, 93 L.Ed. 212 (1949) and A.F. of L. v. American Sash & Door Co., 335 U.S. 538, 69 S.Ct. 258, 93 L.Ed. 222 (1949). The court held that the Arizona, Nebraska, and North Carolina right to work laws violated neither the due process clause nor the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitut
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