Reprinted from Campaign For America's Future
The argument is that since unions protect working people's pay and rights, paying fees for union services therefore violates the "free speech" of those who support concentrated wealth and power.
This case is going to be argued before the Supreme Court on Monday. Here's why you need to pay attention.
Payment For Services Unions Are Required By Law To Provide
When a public-employee union negotiates a contract, even employees who are not union-members get the pay increases, sick pay, vacation pay, union services and other benefits of the contract. Union services include the cost of collective bargaining, administering the resulting contract, and representing employees who have grievances under the contract.
Currently, unions are required by law to provide these services to every employee covered by a union contract, even if those employees are not union members. So, the unions charge an "agency fee" to those non-union employees to cover the costs.
Public-Employee Unions Support Communities, Not Just The Workers
Public-employee unions, by their nature, fight for the interests not just of employees but of the entire community. On a Wednesday call about the implications of the Freidrichs case, members of public-employee unions described how their unions help them serve the whole community.
Vincent Variale, a New York Fire Department EMS lieutenant and 9/11 first responder, said it is important for first responders to have a voice at the table, because they fight for preventive safety regulations, good equipment and adequate staffing levels.
For example, he said that on 9/11 they had no respirators, so it was hard to provide medical care as needed. His union local brought these concerns to the fire department and fought to get better equipment. Now they have respirators and protective equipment that allows them to work in harsh environments, like building collapses, providing medical care that is needed. And now that there is such a concern about "active shooters," the union is proactively trying to get bulletproof vests. This demonstrates how unions protect the citizens their members serve.
Pankaj Sharma, a high school teacher in Illinois, talked about how his union works to stop cuts to the most marginalized and at-risk students. Special education, for example, is an expensive program and is often a target for cuts. The union fights this. The union also advocates for referendums to get high quality facilities. Because teaching has a high turnover rate, the union created a mentoring program to help keep teachers. This helps school districts and the students.
Coming Soon: Not Just Public Employees
In 2014 the Court ruled 5-4 that the First Amendment prohibited unions from collecting a fee from home healthcare providers who are not members of the union, even though the union was required to provide services.
Because of the makeup of the Court it is likely to rule in Freidrichs that nonmembers no longer have to pay those fees while the unions will still be required to provide those services. (Why else would the Court have taken this case?)
These cases are about public employees, but undoubtedly all of this is intended to lead also to attacking the same requirements for private-employee unions. This is about making every state a "right-to-work" state, and suppressing unions and wages.
Corporate Conservative Court Is Reconsidering Supposedly "Settled" Cases
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