TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Apr 29, 2021

The resolution to add Tennessee’s “right to work” law to the state Constitution today cleared the General Assembly and will now appear on the 2022 ballot, the Associated Press reports. The resolution’s sponsor, Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, says the constitutional amendment is needed because it will make it harder to repeal or weaken the “right to work” law. Opponents counter that the measure discourages workers from joining unions, while others argue that right-to-work states have more workplace fatalities and lower wages. To amend the state Constitution, changes must pass by a majority in both chambers during one two-year General Assembly, and then pass by at least two-thirds of the vote in the next. The amendment would then go before the voters in the year of the next gubernatorial election.