GOP-led Tennessee ballot proposal to test labor interest

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — As unions see new hope from organizing U.S. businesses ranging from Starbucks storefronts to an Amazon warehouse, Republican-led Tennessee will officially take its voters' temperature on an organized labor issue in November.

Lawmakers there have offered up a ballot amendment that asks voters whether to change the state constitution to add Tennessee's existing law that bans a company and a union from contracts that require workers to pay dues to the union representing them. Proponents, including business interests and Republican politicians, call the prohibitions “right-to-work” law. Unions oppose the change and the right-to-work label.

Tennessee has had such a law on the books since 1947, and the ballot amendment's outcome wouldn't change how the existing law works. It would simply become harder to eliminate it going forward.

The amendment's wording won't be as straightforward as some other ballot initiatives, including an anti-abortion proposal that failed in Kansas earlier this year. That gives proponents and opponents more power over characterizing Tennessee's proposed change.

The long road to insert it into the Tennessee Constitution began in 2020, largely predating the recent national groundswell of interest in unions. Backers of the amendment have cited concerns about attempts by congressional Democrats to pass a labor bill that would bar such laws nationwide. It has passed the House but not the Senate. They also have raised concerns that Democratic-run states could try to unwind so-called right-to-work laws.

The amendment will offer a rare snapshot this November of voter sentiment on a flashpoint in the debate between union and business interests, even if the election's outcome won't change much. Democratic-led Illinois has proposed a labor-favored amendment, asking voters to etch...