OpenMarket: Government Unions

The U.S. got some good news that the employment rate had fallen to 8.4 percent in July, but it is possible that that could jump back up thanks to the beginning of the school year. In an effort to prevent the spreads of COVID-19, school districts are being as cautious as possible about reopening for in-person instruction and that may mean that many parents are forced to give up work.

What determines whether your child school is open this fall? Apparently, the strength of the teachers local union. That was what analysts found using data on school openings and the relative strength of those school districts’ unions.

A favorite tactic used by unions to prevent membership losses, and the accompanying loss of dues money, is making the process of opting out of as difficult and confusing as possible. Government employee unions may now get a taste of their own medicine thanks to a federal rule announced Thursday that puts the burden on unions, not workers, to deal with the process.

For more than a decade, one of the areas of broad bipartisan agreement in Congress was on protecting police officers “unfairly targeted” for their “aggressive enforcement of the laws.” It was the one area where conservative tough-on-crime and liberal pro-labor positions overlapped.

The progressive left’s calls to “defund the police” have extended to attacking the right of law enforcement officers to have unions. This has put organized labor’s leaders in an awkward position. On the one hand, they’ve been big supporters of the civil rights movement. On the other, they are wary of endorsing the idea that certain people shouldn’t have the right to collectively bargain.

Teachers unions are eager to see the COVID-19 outbreak end and things return normal because the outbreak has turned the U.S. into a nation of homeschoolers. Presumably, most of those parents would still rather have their kids in traditional schools but it appears that at least some will decide they like homeschooling once they get a taste for it.

As taxpayers, we trust our locally elected officials to act as fiduciaries of our hard-earned dollars. However, it is well documented that the government frequently fritters away tax dollars on activity that serves no public purpose.

Labor unions continue to deny the First Amendment rights of public employees despite the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Janus v. AFSCME, which ruled one year ago that non-union workers cannot be compelled to pay union fees as a condition of employment. Many public employees that want to drop their membership have found it can be exceedingly difficult to do so.

It has been nearly one year since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the First Amendment rights of public employees, but many members are still having difficulties exercising these new rights. In the landmark Janus v. AFSCME decision, public employees who are not members of a union can no longer be forced to pay agency fees, better known as forced union dues, as a condition of employment.

It has been difficult to gauge the impact of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME. In this ruling, the Supreme Court held that forcing non-members to pay fees to a union as a condition of employment is a violation of the First Amendment. Predictions on the fallout from Janus ran the gamut. Some predicted a mass exodus, while other believed few public workers would resign their membership.