Muskogee, Okla. (June 6, 2002) – Rejecting arguments offered by many of Oklahoma’s top union officials, U.S. District Court Judge Frank H. Seay has affirmed the constitutionality of Oklahoma’s new Right to Work Law which frees employees laboring under compulsory unionism.

The court ruled on motions for summary judgment submitted Governor Frank Keating’s legal team and attorneys for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation who represented several Oklahoma workers. The court held that, while the Right to Work law cannot be enforced with regard to employees laboring under the Railway Labor Act (RLA) or employees of the federal government, the law clearly and constitutionally protects employees who work for private companies under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

A vast majority of employees in Oklahoma work for private companies under the NLRA and thus are protected by the Right to Work law. None of America’s 22 state Right to Work laws govern federal employees or employees who labor under the RLA. The court also pointed out that the provision of Oklahoma’s Right to Work law that attempts to ban exclusive union hiring halls is preempted by federal law as established by longstanding precedent pertaining to other state Right to Work laws.

“Union officials despise the notion of allowing employees to decide for themselves whether to join or support a union,” said Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. “Big Labor’s trumped-up lawsuit was just another insult to the voters of Oklahoma who rejected the unions’ cynical campaign lies and tactics last fall.”

The employees represented by National Right to Work Foundation attorneys argued that if the unions prevailed in voiding the statewide ban on forced unionism, employees would suffer direct financial harm as well as damage to their interests of free speech and free association. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor, Oklahoma has led the nation in the creation of jobs since the passage of Right to Work last September.

The Oklahoma AFL-CIO, six local unions, and a heavily unionized company filed the suit last November in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma to overturn the will of Oklahoma’s voters, who enacted State Question 695 on September 25, 2001. The Right to Work constitutional amendment bans the widespread union practice of forcing workers to join an unwanted union or pay union dues as a condition of employment. Oklahoma is the newest of America’s 22 Right to Work states.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in more than 250 cases nationwide per year.