Catherwood LibraryILR School

In a massive turnout, Oklahoma residents narrowly voted to join the ranks of twenty-one other states with 'right-to-work' work laws in a statewide referendum yesterday. The new law will reverse a previous state law requiring that non-union workers in unionized bargaining units pay the equivalent of union dues, and will make such agency-shop agreements unenforceable when collectively bargained. State business leaders have long supported such a change in state law, while labor leaders have decried it as an attempt by big business to further weaken workplace democracy in a state in which only eight percent of workers are unionized.