Many people are hurting as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, the United States has seen the worst unemployment rate since the Great Depression.
Some of the recent economic signs are good, but many people are still suffering. The federal government has already spent trillions of dollars that it doesn’t have and is under constant pressure to spend more.
There may be a better way to get money into the hands of more workers who need it now, by allowing them to keep the money they are currently compelled or trapped into paying to unions. Here are three ways to do that.
1. Bar unions from collecting dues from unemployed members.
You might think unions would take it easy on unemployed workers, and, in some cases, you would be correct. For instance, a culinary union in Nevada waived dues for nonworking members during the statewide casino shutdown. The cinematographers union waived all dues for the second quarter of this year and is providing $1,000 grants to members who lost their job and are in need. Good for them. It was the right thing to do.
Yet, there are reports that unions are continuing to lean on nonworking members. Reps. Virginia Foxx (a Republican from North Carolina) and Tim Walberg (a Republican from Michigan) are both members of the House Education and Labor Committee. They sent a letter last week to the presidents of four large unions, seeking to find out how widespread this practice is and asking them to stop it where it is happening. If the unions won’t do it voluntarily, the federal government may step in.
Besides “strongly urging” unions to stop collecting dues from unemployed members, Foxx and Walberg urged them to “work with companies receiving federal coronavirus relief loans to suspend dues checkoff for the duration of the loan.” The representatives pointed out that allowing workers to keep their money would “be a tangible benefit for struggling workers, families, taxpayers, and businesses.”
2. Give public employees a fresh choice.
Aside from congressional action, states can immediately give public employees a new choice of whether to pay union dues or not.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently followed the example of Alaska Attorney General Kevin Clarkson and issued an advisory opinion recommending public employers in his state give government workers a fresh choice on paying dues.
Citing the U.S. Supreme Court in Janus v. AFSCME, Paxton said that “at a minimum, the State must ensure that employee consent to payroll deductions for membership fees or dues in a union or employee organization is collected in a way that ensures voluntariness.” He also said that government workers need to be asked periodically if they want to keep having dues deducted.
In Janus, the Supreme Court said that public employees have a First Amendment right to choose to pay dues and that governments must have evidence their employees have opted to join a union before they collect dues.
Acting on this opinion would allow Texas public employers to not only let people keep more of their money, but it would also avoid future litigation from workers who want them to comply with the Supreme Court ruling. In Alaska, after Clarkson issued his opinion, Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued an order saying that the state would not collect dues until employees opt-in.
Governments in other states should do likewise and let public employees make a fresh decision on whether the fees are worth it.
3. Apply Janus to private sector union jobs.
In April, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled that Janus should apply to all workers because “workers in the private sector have no less of a right than public sector employees to be free from forced association with a labor organization.”
The decision does not apply to other states, but that doesn’t mean other states can’t follow this example. In 23 states without right-to-work laws, unions can get workers fired for not paying them. Especially now, we don’t need more people fired for guarding the money they have, money they could use to care for themselves and their families.
Now, more than ever, workers need the freedom to choose to keep their full paychecks. If unions truly care about their members, they will give them this choice, now, and make dues voluntary. And if not, then elected officials and courts should insist that they do.
F. Vincent Vernuccio is a senior fellow at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a research and educational institute in Midland, Michigan.
