The AFL-CIO labor federation is planning a “day of action” just before the Supreme Court hears a major case that could damage the power of public-sector unions.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka announced a “Working People’s Day of Action” for Feb. 24, the Saturday before the Supreme Court hears Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which he called “a case against working people.”
“They’re ratcheting up their fight to break us up because they know we are strongest together,” he said in an email to supporters, promising local events coast to coast. “Now is the time for working people to band together, hold the line on our freedom to join together to make improvements at work and demand an economy that works for everyone.”
The Supreme Court will hear the case Feb. 26. It involves whether public-sector workers can be forced to join or otherwise financially support their workplace’s unions as a condition of employment. Mark Janus, an Illinois state government worker, argues that such requirements — dubbed “security clauses” by unions — violate his First Amendment rights.
Security fees are a common provision in public-sector union contracts and were declared legal by the Supreme Court in a 1997 case called Abood v. Detroit Board of Education. The Janus case could overturn that precedent. Unions such as the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees count on the fees and likely would suffer financially without them. An internal survey the union did in 2015 found that only one-third of their members would voluntarily pay dues no matter what, and half of its membership couldn’t be counted on to do that. Fifteen percent would be certain to opt out of paying dues entirely.
Labor leaders argue that unions are owed the fees to compensate for their collective bargaining on behalf of the workers. D. Taylor, president of the service workers union Unite Here, told the Washington Examiner that if the workers don’t want to pay the fees, “They can not work there. They know what they are getting into. When did we become a nation of freeloaders?”
