Oklahoma Members Gear-Up to Defeat Right-to-Work

Secretary-Treasurer Jim Boland joins a picket line protesting a fundraiser by supporters of State Question 695. Senator Don Nichols (R-OK) crossed the picket line.

On September 25, Oklahomans will go to the polls to vote on one issue and one issue only: State Question 695, which, if passed, will enact Right-to-Work laws throughout the state.*

Backed by powerful business and political interests such as Farmers Insurance, the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce, and Oklahoma’s Governor, State Question 695 would usher in lower wages and poor working conditions for all of the state’s working men and women, and bust the unions in the state.

The BAC Executive Council, the Union’s highest advisory body, responded by adopting a resolution at its summer meeting calling on BAC Locals to contribute as generously as possible to the Oklahoma AFL-CIO’s Stop Right-to-Work Fund.

BAC President John J. Flynn, who helped win Missouri’s battle against Right-to-Work 20 years ago, told the Council:

“Oklahoma’s battle is our battle, and we’ll do all we can to protect the rights of our members, and all working families. Oklahoma is just the ‘tip of the iceberg.’ There are Right-to-Work initiatives underway in several other states and provinces, as well as efforts to pass national Right-to-Work legislation. Defeating Question 695 will send a strong message to anti-worker groups that while they may have the money—we have the people—and people count.”

Local 5 Oklahoma/Arkansas President Ed Navarro told the Executive Council that Local 5 members are in for the “fight of our lives, and our livelihoods.” So far, members have reacted “very positively to the Local’s request for their help in mobilizing friends, families, and coworkers to beat 695, but we need support from everyone,” says Navarro. Achieving 100% voter registration of the Local’s membership in the state is considered key to winning this critical battle.

“This latest union-busting initiative is very similar to the Proposition 226 (paycheck deception) battle we fought in California in 1998,” says BAC Secretary-Treasurer Jim Boland. “We won that battle because our members mobilized, helped educate the public, and voted.”

Local 5 Field Representative Chris Meehan knows first-hand the dangers of Right-to-Work. Meehan, whose work for Local 5 is centered in Arkansas, a Right-to-Work state since 1947, deals with the fall-out from it every day. The legislation has kept labor weak and wages down. Union organizing is hindered, and free riders consistently drag down the standards that dues-paying union members have worked hard to institute.