6/27/2018 In a narrow 5-4 decision Wednesday, the Supreme Court once again sided with corporate special interests and against America’s working families. In a case called Janus vs. AFSCME, the Court ruled that public sector unions may no longer assess so-called agency fees, the payment required of non-union members to cover the cost of collective-bargaining services. These “fair share” fees are vital because such services provide benefits to members and non-members alike. In so doing, the Court overturned longstanding precedent and adopted a radical reading of the First Amendment pushed by anti-union forces.
NALC President Fredric Rolando issued the following statement after the decision:
“This is an appalling decision that shows once again that elections have consequences,” Rolando said. “With the deciding vote of Neal Gorsuch, the justice nominated by President Trump in 2017, the Court has betrayed America’s workers once again – by doing the bidding of corporate interests who are dedicated to weakening America’s unions. Our labor movement will not take this attack lying down. Just as NALC has learned to organize without agency fees, the unions representing public employees at the state and local level are gearing up to overcome this grossly unjustified ruling. We stand in solidarity with them.”
The ruling is especially galling because the Gorsuch seat on the Supreme Court was effectively stolen by the Senate GOP majority in 2016 when, for the first time in history, it refused to consider a president’s nomination of a justice for the nation’s highest court. In fact, it refused to even hold a hearing for Judge Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee. After the 2016 election, the same GOP majority then further trampled on tradition by eliminating the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations, making it possible for anti-worker judges like Gorsuch to be elevated to the Supreme Court. With the Janus decision, the cost of these unprincipled attacks on our democratic norms just went up.
Adding insult to injury, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement today – opening yet another opportunity for President Trump to nominate another extremist, anti-union justice to the Court.
The AFL-CIO and its unions are mobilizing to overcome the Janus decision. To learn more, visit https://www.afge.org/publication/following-janus-ruling-workers-must-unite-to-preserve-rights/.
The workers that stop paying agency dues will become freeloaders. They will demand pay increases, grievance rights, and protections in seniority rights. The non dues payers should be paid $ 7.25 per hour, no retirement, or health insurance, or annual leave. They should be required to go in and negotiate their own pay and benefits. However, they would never do that. Besides they don’t have to . Their pal will take care of them. They will become wealthy. And if they fall to the side, tough. As Herbert Spencer said ” The survival Of The Fittest”. You can take care of yourself!
Elections have consequences. Thankfully the investigations into Russiagate will too.
after what Cliff Guff and Mike Morris did to the APWU clerks Union I am surprised there are any union members left! talk about getting screwed over….they destroyed the union and now they cry. fat cats no more!
Free loaders? Workers rights?
The rights of workers are being infringed upon by “mandatory” dues given to a politically bias organization. Unions have not negotiated wages in a long time, they are more interested in controls and loop holes to bilk management and the organization out of millions.
Maybe this will allow workers the right to choose. Personally I’m tired of seeing the Union lining their pockets protecting the dam freeloaders who don’t pull their weight and cause problems in the work place.
NO they did not attack my rights……they went after you do nothing, 1% yearly raise, “they can do that” bums who have failed to represent us…..while sucking up to po mismgt. at our plant, through the years, 100% of the union thugs went into po mismgt and became the worst stupidvisors and lazy back office coffee drinkers you ever want to meet, threw out over 50 of my grievances……Trump called you out with his Judge pick and you went down in flames. if these union were so great, how come I had to hire lawyers to fight off the po mismgt…..and win!
Sorry Fred. The ones who don’t pay dues are the smart ones. If it weren’t for union protection, I wouldn’t them either and i would still get the standard 1% raise. You haven’t done enough to get us decent raises and sold us down the river when it came to cca ‘s all in the name of 30,000 new potential members at that time. You didn’t care about them nor the rest of us. You just want more members paying dues so mb you don’t lose that $5,000/ month “expense” stipend you receive. Get over it and work FOR your members and then you won’t have to worry.
Do a better job of representation and you’ll have nothing to worry about.
Things must change at the upper levels to make people believe in unions again.
Now the freeloaders will have union contracts to cover them. They will receive grievance rights, pay increases, and must include all the past benefits the “commie”unions fought for in the past. If our leader succeeds in destroying the Postal Service, the freeloaders will demand the “commie” unions safe them! The freeloaders should be cut back to minimum wage and forced to negotiate their own benefits. However they wouldn’t do that! they would rather live with theft of services. Let someone pay for union membership. They never practice what they preach. They believe that everyone should be self reliant, pay their own way. They then send their children to tax payer funded schools. Why should they pay to educate their children when the tax payer can? Why pay tuition when they can suck off the tax payer! Once a freeloader, always a freeloader!
Give them back their taxes that they have had to pay, by force, for the “taxpayer” funded schools, and maybe they will send them to a private school. Public schools aren’t very different from unions: confiscate money from people without their approval, which is then used for crap they don’t support. We’ve never sent a child to public school, yet have now payed an accumulated amount in the tens of thousands for these indoctrination centers. Where’s my refund?
AFL/CIO was all in on illegal criminal aliens pouring in the USA to keep wages down. just make their dues collection agency bigger. at out plant the union dopes say “they can do that” or tell you to go to EEOC while they eat pizza and Chinese food with MDO’s…..they SUX big time and just got a reaming! 1% yearly raise vs 10% PFP bonus…..yeah what a company union.
It is not the Supreme Court that is a threat to labor. The unlimited flow of cheap labor into the US is the biggest threat to higher wages and job security.
And the unions are all in support of that, under the guise “comprehensive immigration reform.” Or, as people in the know call it, amnesty.
waaa, waaa, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
As usual, the union drivel is full of lies.
Since the vast majority of working families are NON-union, just how is this ruling against them?
The main problem they have is that the Democrat coffers won’t be quite as full because of less union money, which was taken by force from workers against without their permission.
The Democrats first eliminated the filibuster in 2013 for NON Supreme Court,Justices,you assholes!! This is just another indication of the need to totally smash the total Mongoloid-Retardation of Ideological-purity,without regard to whether it is initiated by the Right-wing or the Left-wing?
Hey Fred these decisions are happening because of spineless union leaders like you and William Young that sell out us workers every step of the way and cave into management. it’s sad but allot of us workers don’t give a damn anymore. For example the NALC should stop selling out the letter carriers every step of the way when there is a contract. The time has come for us members to elect David Noble and the CLEAN SWEEP in 2018.
You are spot on. They want to sell us out on our FEHB plans for a postal only plan. In other words, the crappy NALC health plan. The union and management are lying everyday in every way to the employee. Resist management, and get out of the union. Stop paying them to sell you out.