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Passing Right to Work in Oklahoma, 1993-2001
Situation:
I was hired by the Oklahoma Freedom to Work Committee in 1993 to help pass a right to work law in Oklahoma, ending 50 years of forced union membership. A right to work law is highly valued by many companies seeking to relocate. Oklahoma was losing 90% of corporate relocations to Texas, Kansas, and Arkansas because these states had right to work statutes and Oklahoma did not.
The Political Landscape on Right to Work in Oklahoma
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1993 Program Began
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2001 Successful Completion
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Anti-right to work governor
Right to work supporters in House: 34 of 101
Right to work supporters in Senate: 18 of 48
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Pro-right to work governor
Support in House: 59
Support in Senate: 25
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Congressional Delegation:
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5 Congressmen anti-right to work
3 Congressmen pro-right to work
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Entire delegation supportive
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Action Plan:
Direct Lobbying: Identify members of the legislature who were supportive of voluntary unionism and get them to force a roll call vote. This involved numerous one-on-one meetings plus caucus presentations to build the necessary support for the vote.
Public media strategy: I worked with the editorial page writers of the state’s largest newspapers to begin to explain the importance of right to work to a statewide audience. Also press conferences and media events highlighting the issue.
Candidates Recruitment and Campaigns: I began to recruit and identify pro-right to work candidates for key districts that were supportive of right to work but where the incumbent was opposed. I was able to acquire extensive polling work in these districts to determine if the districts would support pro-right to work candidates. In many of these districts, challengers could not raise significant amounts of money to get professional help, so I volunteered in their campaigns, putting together their brochures, media, websites, and campaign plans.
Coalition Support: We knew that one group working alone could not win this battle, so one of my duties was to meet with other supportive groups such as chambers of commerce and other business groups to explain the importance of this issue. By the end of the program, nearly every major business group in the state had put passage of right to work as the top item in their program of works.
Staff Development and Fundraising: I trained 12 field representatives over the course of this program to work with election campaigns, to organize grassroots support, and to write mail copy. I also trained three people to become part-time fundraisers for our program.
The total cost of this program was over $3.2 million. In September 2001 the voters of Oklahoma passed right to work.
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