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Alabama Proposes Constitutional Amendment For Right to Work Law


On November 8, voters in Alabama will get to decide whether to amend the state constitution and solidify the right to work law in the state.  Amendment 8 would write right to work into the state constitution (and therefore make it harder to repeal).  Readers might recall that a similar ballot initiate will be up for vote in Virginia this November as well.  Similar to Virginia, if this amendment passes and right to work is written into the state constitution, it would become difficult (if not nearly impossible) to undo the law.  Any attempt to change the law (and amend the constitution) would require a three fifths vote in both the House and Senate in Alabama and then a statewide vote.

Alabama, a right to work state since 1953, is a heavily unionized state.  In fact, approximately 10.2% of the workforce belonged to a union in 2015.  For a southern state, that is a somewhat unprecedented number of union workers.  Common thought would follow that this proposed constitutional amendment should therefore fail, given the high umber of union workers in the state.  However, unlike Virginia which is a more liberal state (and therefore union friendly), Alabama is a traditional conservative state that would likely support legislation and constitutional amendments that are not labor friendly..such as Amendment 8.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out...


For additional information:  http://www.governing.com/topics/mgmt/gov-right-to-work-alabama-virginia-ballot-measures.html

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