LABOR/SUPREME COURT: “Public-employee unions face a reckoning Monday [2-26-18] when the Supreme Court hears a long-anticipated lawsuit seeking to strip them of the power to bill collective-bargaining costs to employees who don’t want to pay.
The case arrives at the court as a dispute between a state employee in Springfield, Ill., and the union that represents his bargaining unit over a $45 monthly payroll deduction. The stakes are much higher: A ruling for the plaintiff would sap the strength of public-employee unions in states where they have been a pillar of the Democratic Party coalition.
The politics are reflected in the support behind each side. The Trump administration is backing the employee, as are an array of conservative politicians and organizations. The union is joined by a range of left-leaning groups, labor organizations and Democratic political figures, including the mayors of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Under federal law, states hold significant discretion to decide the degree of power organized labor can exercise in the workplace. They can decide whether private businesses and labor unions can include in contracts “union-security” clauses that require hires to join a union or pay it an “agency fee” for representation in collective bargaining. Without such provisions, labor leaders say, too many employees would become free riders who benefit from union-won contracts while burdening more altruistic co-workers with overhead costs.
The plaintiff in the case, Illinois child-welfare-office worker Mark Janus, argues the agency fees infringe on his First Amendment right to freedom of speech.”
-Jess Bravin, “Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Public-Sector Unions,” The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 25, 2018 08:08pm