Democrats introduce bill to strip workers of rights won under Supreme Court union ruling

The court’s 5-4 ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said it violated public-sector workers’ First Amendment rights to require them to pay their workplace’s union regular fees — common requirement in union contracts, dubbed a “security clause” — unless the employee “affirmatively consents to pay.”

So, if the employee ever signed anything, even unknowingly, that approved a deduction, the union can cite that to argue that the worker cannot exercise his rights under Janus.

The legislation is authored by Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, and Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., and co-sponsored by 31 Senate and 19 House Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

The text of the legislation was not available, but in a joint statement Thursday, the lawmakers said the legislation would require that all public employers “recognize the employees’ labor organization … and to commit any agreements to writing in a contract or memorandum of understanding.”

That would put public employers in the position of siding with the union in any case when there was a dispute over whether a worker could invoke his rights under Janus. The legislation is dubbed the “Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act.”

The Janus ruling was a potentially major blow to public-sector unions, which rely heavily on funds derived through safety clauses. The unions argue they are owed the money because collective bargaining benefits all workers. Many of those workers would rather not pay, however. An internal survey by AFSCME, which has 1.6 million members, found that only a third of them would voluntarily pay dues, and half of its membership couldn’t be counted upon to do that, according to a 2015 Bloomberg report. Fifteen percent would opt out of paying dues entirely.

Democrats have argued that the court case was an attack on workers because it would result in weaker unions. “The Supreme Court’s decision in Janus is just the latest blow in a decades-long attack on unions and their ability to lift American families into the middle class … We need to pass the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act to protect and strengthen the fundamental the ability of unions to organize and collectively bargain for fair wages and working conditions that are critical to public-sector employees,” Hirono said.

Cartwright said, “Strong public- and private-sector unions built the middle class in our country, and we should not turn back the clock on those struggling families.”

The lawmakers said their legislation would give the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the agency charged with overseeing public-sector labor relations, the authority to determine whether a state or local government grants their workers “basic labor rights and responsibilities.” The responsibilities for workers would appear to include abiding by the FLRA’s “Real enforcement of all rights, responsibilities, and protections provided” under “any written contract or (memorandum of understanding) between a labor organization and a public employer.”

Representatives of Hirono and Cartwright did not respond to requests for comment.

“This bill would force all 50 states to give monopoly bargaining powers to Big Labor, in a gross violation of the rights of public employees and the rights of those states’ policymakers. Monopoly bargaining has been a failure in the private sector, and a disaster in the public sector, for every state that has implemented it,” said Greg Mourad, vice president of the National Right to Work Committee. “Now the national Democrats want to force it on the rest of the states as well. It’s an obvious payback to the union bosses who spend $2 billion every election cycle to help them get elected.”