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What I’ve Been Reading This Week


It has been a while since there has been a relevant right to work update.  This week, a development out of Tennessee is worth noting.  How things will play out remains to be seen.  However, if I were a betting man, I would wager that state’s right to work law will eventually be enshrined in the Tennessee Constitution.  Will it happen this go around?  Stay tuned. 

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.



Recently, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced he was leading the “Yes on 1” committee which is seeking to get a ballot initiative before voters next year that would enshrine the state’s right to work law into the Tennessee Constitution.  While Tennessee is already a right to work state, a change in the political makeup in the state could see that right to work law rescinded.  Placing it in the Tennessee Constitution would “protect” it a bit more by making it more permanent and tougher to repeal.  (A repeal would take another ballot initiative…rather than just the Tennessee Legislature amending/rescinding the law.)



As Greg Iacurci at CNBC writes, four states have approved paying unemployment benefits to workers that are terminated for failing to get the coronavirus vaccine.  Governors in Florida, Iowa, Tennessee, and Kansas have recently signed these laws with many expecting other states (conservative leaning if I were to guess) to possibly follow suit.  As the article notes, this development is somewhat unique as most states do not offer unemployment benefits to workers that are terminated for failing to follow workplace policies.  However, as with anything (including the coronavirus vaccine mandates) this is a unique situation that perhaps deserves a unique response.  Might some readers agree?



Readers might recall that about 1,400 unionized Kellogg’s workers went on strike after failing to reach an agreement with the company over a new collective bargaining agreement.  While there had been some hope that the strike would end after negotiations back and forth between the sides, earlier this week it was announced that the striking workers have rejected the latest proposal from the company which would have seen the workers receive a 3% raise.  That begs the question, where do things go from here?  For the company, they have indicated they will look to hire permanent replacements for the striking workers.  For the striking workers...well, they remain on strike but an agreement could eventually be reached between the parties.

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