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Local 514 Transport Workers Union of America v. Keating12/16/2003
o work amendment did not apply to employees covered by the Railway Labor Act, the Civil Service Reform Act, or the Postal Reorganization Act; nor did it have any application to federal enclaves, such as military bases. Thus, held the trial court, no preemption issues existed as to employees covered by these federal acts because the Oklahoma right to work amendment itself contemplated that those employees were excluded from the amendment's ambit.
The trial court held that § 1A(B)(5) of the right to work amendment, relating to exclusive hiring halls, conflicted with and was preempted by the Labor Management Relations Act and the National Labor Relations Act, § 14(b), as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 164(b). The trial court also held that § 1A(C) of the right to work amendment, relating to payroll checkoff arrangements, conflicted with and was preempted by the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 186(c)(4), which regulates such checkoff arrangements.
After concluding that § 1A(B)(5) and § 1A(C) of the right to work amendment conflict with and are preempted by federal law, the trial court went on to analyze whether, under Oklahoma law, the remaining provisions, primarily §1A(B)(1)-§1A(B)(4), were capable of standing alone and being executed in accordance with the intent of the people, or were so interdependent with the preempted provisions, it could not be said that the people would have voted to enact the remaining provisions by themselves. The trial court held that the remaining provisions of the right to work amendment, subsections (B)(1)-(B)(4), were "the law's core provisions banning union and agency shops would have been enacted notwithstanding the absence of the invalid provisions." 212 F.Supp.2d at 1329.
On appeal the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that § 1A(B)(1) of the right to work amendment was also preempted by federal law. As a result of this holding, the Court of Appeals, on its own motion, submitted to us the certified questions set out above and sought our "authoritative guidance."
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Oklahoma right to work law is one of many that have been passed throughout the United States through both legislation and constitutional amendment. Such laws were enacted to protect employees against discrimination on account of their membership or non-membership in labor organizations. The U.S. Supreme Court first held that such laws were constitutional in 1949 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 Constitution.
In 1947, the 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.
The various forms of collective bargaining agreements between unions and employers that require employees to pay union dues in one form or another are generally characterized as "security agreements." Lincoln Federal, 335U.S. at 528, 69 S.Ct. at 153. The conflict over right to work laws has arisen because
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