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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Supremes v. the Unions
Recent rulings expose the high courts anti-worker bias.
by Bill Blum
August 1, 2018
Toward the end of the oral argument in a pivotal labor case before the U.S. Supreme Court last February, Justice Sonia Sotomayor made a comment that cut to the heart of the matter.
Youre basically arguing, do away with unions, Sotomayor said.
The case, Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31, concerns the right of public-employee unions to collect fees from nonunion workers. The plaintiff, Mark Janus, is an Illinois state public employee who refuses to join AFSCME, which acts as the bargaining agent for rank-and-file employees in his department, and objects to having fair-share fees deducted from his monthly paychecks.
Sotomayors remark was directed to Januss attorney William Messenger. It echoed the concerns of progressive activists across the country, who say the case poses an existential threat to public-sector unions, which rely on fair-share fees from nonmembers to defray the costs of collective bargaining and contract administration.
Messenger, a staff lawyer for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and member of the conservative Federalist Society, hemmed a bit at the justices bluntness, but he stuck to the central position he had advanced in his argument and briefs: that the case was about the First Amendment. He insisted that Americans have not only an affirmative right to speak but also a passive right not to be compelled to speak. And making nonunion public employees pay fees to a union, he and others contend, amounts to compelled speech.
https://progressive.org/magazine/the-supremes-v-unions/
Its just fine and dandy for corporations to give money to attack workers and call it free speech but when a majority of workers vote have there voices to be used in a collective voice and exercise their free speech, the minority of one voice "Janus" says ........................nope
-snip-
Youre basically arguing, do away with unions, Sotomayor said."
maxrandb
(15,360 posts)Asking her to quit the Union based on Janus.
She told them to pack sand because she understands the importance of having some limited rights to collective bargaining.
Wonder how many will take the bait and drop out.
My guess is about the same number that happily shop at Walmart and then bitch about how all the good paying jobs in grocery and retail have just mysteriously vanished.
This country is fucked. Another generation will have to sacrifice blood to get back the rights that were paid for with the blood of the last generation.
I'm not hopeful.
turbinetree
(24,720 posts)thinks that when one man "Janus" (scab) has more rights than a democratically elected agreed upon set of rules has more power than a majority.......................it is time to fight back.......................and this election means we have to take back the House, to change this "Janus" ruling.
I just finished a book called "Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism, by Robert Kutter, and it explains in pretty good detail how financial and other right wing interests are undermining the very fabric of the worker and the agreements justs like this "Janus" ruling......................amazing.
A lot of members will take the "bait" and "drop out"
Freddie
(9,275 posts)Where in most districts, including ours, teachers are well paid with great benefits and pension **thanks to the union***. Yet theres more than a few Republican teachers. These are educated people, most of them have their masters degree. I honestly dont get it.
turbinetree
(24,720 posts)and I have on the front my former local union emblem the International IAM and then on the back it has a caricature of this "scab" with his hands and feet dug into my back and it says "Get the Freeloader Off My Back", when I wore that shirt on a strike line, and when the pilots crossed our strike line under a court injunction to to not honor the strike, they would just look and make comments, I still called them strike breakers, scabs.
I also don't get it.
The UE (United Electrical Union) had a saying "United We Stand, Divided We Fall" and they the UE is one of the most, what's a good word "radical unions out there thinks along the line of Eugene Debs................that the collective of the worker has to stand together as one voice........................
I am so proud of what teachers are doing today..............by calling out for more education money..................etc.....