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Local 514 Transport Workers Union of America v. Keating12/16/2003
of the opposing attitudes toward security agreements. Right to work advocates believe that every worker should have the right to decline to pay dues to an organization whose views the worker may oppose, but unions believe that no worker should be entitled to benefit from the advantages secured by unions without having contributed to the unions' support. The cases dealing with this issue are collected and discussed in a recent A.L.R. annotation, Validity, Construction, and Application of State Right-to-Work Provisions, 105 A.L.R.5th 243 (2003).
DISCUSSION
I. Severability Analysis is not Required because the right to work law contemplates that some of its provisions might not operate in some limited circumstances as a result of the interpretation of federal law by federal courts.
As noted earlier, the trial court held that Oklahoma's right to work amendment did not apply to employees covered by the Railway Labor Act, the Civil Service Reform Act, or the Postal Reorganization Act, and had no application to federal enclaves, such as military bases. Thus, the trial court concluded that no preemption issue 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. For reasons discussed below, we agree with the trial court's conclusion that the right to work amendment itself contemplated that, because of the operation of federal law, certain employees in certain circumstances might not be covered by the right to work amendment's terms.
First, we note that whether to apply severability analysis here is a matter of state law. With respect to whether severability analysis is required here, we think it only logical to extend the trial court's analysis concerning the Railway Labor Act, the Civil Service Reform Act, the Postal Reorganization Act, and federal enclaves to those sections of the right to work amendment that have been held to be preempted by the Labor Management Relations Act and the National Labor Relations Act. Consequently, we hold that the right to work amendment contemplates that certain of its provisions might not operate under certain conditions because of the Labor Management Relations Act and the National Labor Relations Act, just as the trial court held that the right to work amendment contemplated that it would not apply to employees covered by the Railway Labor Act, the Civil Service Reform Act, or the Postal Reorganization Act, and had no application to federal enclaves, such as military bases. Thus, severability analysis is not necessary.
Our conclusion that severability analysis is unnecessary is buttressed by the fact that the Oklahoma right to work law applies to state and local government workers and agricultural workers, regardless of its preemption by federal law with respect to certain classes of employees in certain situations. Plaintiffs argue that this is not important because state employees are currently not subject to security agreements because of legislation. Based on this fact, plaintiffs claim that the right to work law provides no new protections to state workers. But the right to work law is a constitutional amendment, so it will protect state employees from any legislative changes that might otherwise be made to labor laws governing public employees. Thus, the right to work law provides a significant additional protection to public employees.
II. Constitutional provisions are entitled to the same presumption of validity as legislative provisions.
We have held that it is "the cardinal principle of statutory construction" that a statute is constitutional and should be
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