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Big Labor Releases Another Fraudulent Attack Ad
U.S. Supreme Court affirmed Right to Work laws, ruling that states can suppress conditions regarded as “offensive to the public welfare”
FOR RELEASE: September 21, 2001
SPRINGFIELD, Va. - Organized Labor's new negative ad attacking the constitutionality of State Question 695, Oklahoma's Right to Work Amendment, was today revealed to be deliberately deceitful, as the claim is undeniably contrary to long-standing U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
Barry Kelley, spokesman for the National Right to Work Committee®, said the ad was a "cynical last-ditch ploy to prevent Oklahoma voters from voting. By lying about the constitutionality of Right to Work laws, Big Labor is attempting to manipulate Oklahomans into thinking that it's not worth their trouble to got to the polls on September 25."
Pro-compulsory unionism forces cite Tulsa University law professor Jim Thomas' opinion that S.Q. 695 would be enormously "costly and confusing" to defend constitutionally. The ad proceeds to cite former appellate judge Paul Brightmire's judgment that the bill is "so poorly written, it's unconstitutional." Voters are then encouraged to oppose S.Q. 695.
"Big Labor has played fast and loose with the facts throughout this campaign, and now have enlisted so-called legal scholars to do their bidding. In fact, a first-year law student could distinguish that Right to Work is clearly within states' power as granted by the Constitution.
"Currently 21 states have enacted highly popular Right to Work laws similar to Oklahoma's S.Q. 695, and not one has been ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. In fact, the High Court has consistently reaffirmed states' power to protect workers from union coercion since it decided on two key cases in 1949."
"That year, the Supreme Court upheld North Carolina's Right to Work Law in Lincoln Federal Labor Union v. Northwestern Iron & Metal Company. In Algoma Plywood Co. v. Wisconsin Board, the court ruled the National Labor Relations, or Wagner, Act, permitted state Right to Work laws even before Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act amendments in 1947.
"Judge Brightmire and Professor Thomas desperately need to bone up on their legal education, so that they don't further tarnish their legal reputations in Big Labor's frantic attempt to stave off defeat next Tuesday," concluded Mr. Kelley.
For more information on State Question 695, Oklahoma's Right to Work Amendment, please contact Barry R. Kelley at 405/302-4978, or 703/623-0614 (mobile).