Public employee unions could lose a crucial source of revenue if schoolteacher Rebecca Friedrichs wins her case at the Supreme Court. The ripple effects could damage unions for decades to come.
Or it might help workers, while maybe even helping unions, depending on who you listen to.
“This is not an anti-union case, this is a pro-teacher [case],” Gerard Robinson, a resident fellow in education policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, told the Washington Examiner. He said a Friedrichs victory would give teachers the right to decide how to use their money and make choices about their profession. “[A Friedrichs win is] good for workers who happen to be teachers. They have the right to be able to choose again: I like to have more money at home, where do I want to use that money? If I want to use it for political speech, guess what? I can make the decision on where I send that money.” Robinson grew up in a union household and was a union member early in his career.
Jeanne Allen, founder of the pro-school choice group Center for Education Reform, says a victory for Friedrichs would come with a silver-lining for labor unions. “If Rebecca Friedrichs wins, she will likely have an impact on improving the ability of unions to voluntarily work together,” Allen told the Examiner. “This may help unions evolve as a far more better institution than they ever were.”
Schoolteacher Rebecca Friedrichs sued the California Teachers Association for being forced to pay agency fees that cover the cost of collective bargaining. Friedrichs and her lawyers argue that the fees compel her to support political speech she doesn’t agree with, like unions negotiating against merit pay for teachers or negotiating certain pension agreements.
Allen also predicted that more teachers would leave traditional public schools and open alternative schools, such as public charter schools, if union lawyers won the Friedrichs case. “Ironically enough, if [Friedrichs] fails at the Supreme Court, more schools of choice will be born. And so the unions who don’t support school choice should think about that, because if teachers can’t make a choice in traditional public education, they’ll go somewhere else.”
Grover Norquist, president of the anti-tax group Americans for Tax Reform, said a Friedrichs victory would be good for teachers. “Teachers will have a voice, whereas right now only the teachers union has a voice,” Norquist told the Examiner. He said previous cases have shown that the court may one day agree with the anti-union side on mandatory fees. “Thirty years from now people are going to be amazed that we ever had a poll tax or be amazed that we ever had mandatory union dues for teachers.”
Robinson acknowledged that many African Americans have risen to the middle-class thanks to unions, but said school choice could be just as useful in doing so. “Take a look at the number of minorities — African Americans, Hispanics and immigrant-Americans — who prefer school choice. And many of them send their children to schools where there aren’t unionized teachers. So you can go both ways on this.”
Kelley Williams-Bolar, a paraprofessional from Akron, Ohio, talked about the challenges of getting other African Americans to join her in supporting choice for teachers when it comes to union membership. “A lot of times people are scared of change,” Williams-Bolar told the Examiner. She pointed out that the precedent of mandating public employees to pay an agency fee to cover collective bargaining costs has been in place since the 1977 Supreme Court case Abood v. Detroit Board of Education. “Especially African Americans, sometimes they just need to listen: open up, take it in, and before you’re ready to just say ‘no,’ just listen to what they’re saying.” Williams-Bolar is known for getting arrested and convicted in 2011 for sending her two daughters to a school outside their assigned district.
If Friedrichs does win, it would be a victory for any worker, of any race, who no longer wants to pay for a union he or she doesn’t want to be a part of. Williams-Bolar said she would likely leave and that she only joined the union because she would have to pay for it anyway. “My union’s never done anything for me.”
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
