OpenMarket: Government Unions

An uptick in teacher union strikes has occurred over past few months. Teachers have abandoned students in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma with rumblings of a potential strike in Arizona. What is spurring this increase in union walk-outs? Governing magazine puts forth the idea that the labor laws in these Republican dominated states, which limit union collective bargaining privileges, may be a contributing factor.

Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos deserves a round of applause. Most federal agencies, even in Republican administrations, agree to collective bargaining agreements that heavily subsidize federal employee unions’ cost of representation. Instead, DeVos diverged from past practices and scored a win for taxpayers. 

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in case Janus v. AFSCME, which could significantly impact unions representing government employees. A ruling in favor of plaintiff Mark Janus, an Illinois social service worker, would free public employees across the country from being required to pay for union representation as a condition of employment.

Today at oral argument in Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said “You're basically arguing, do away with unions,” when questioning Bill Messenger, an attorney defending plaintiff Mark Janus, for the National Right to Work Legal Foundation.

President Trump has said that “billions and billions of dollars are being wasted on activities that are not delivering results for hardworking American taxpayers.” The inspection of federal employee collective bargaining agreements is a good place to start reversing that.

Workers should have the right to speak for themselves at their workplace and decide how to spend their hard earned wages.

Under OPM policy, exempt federal employees who work during a shutdown “serving as union officials may continue to be granted official time to the same extent and in the same manner as they would under nonshutdown conditions.”

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It is CEI’s contention that strong labor regulation, including collective bargaining mandates, is detrimental to the general welfare, as it prioritizes the wants of union leaders and their supporters over the needs of other citizens.

Lowell Gallaway and Jonathan Robe demonstrated this in our...

NLRB

Major labor reform is on the horizon in 2018. Worker freedom may be coming to a state near you, federal overtime requirements will likely change, and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has signaled it will restore longstanding precedent and act as a neutral arbiter instead of a union advocate.  

1. Worker Freedom

A landmark case currently before the U.S....

Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) submitted a brief in Janus v AFSCME, Council 31, a case before the United States Supreme Court. The question at hand is whether the First Amendment allows the government to force public employees to financially assist a union they do not support. The plaintiff in the case is asking the Supreme Court to overrule Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977), which permits unions to collect compulsory dues, or in some cases, agency fees.

CEI’s brief dispels the myth that forced union dues are only spent on union representational activity. Despite past U.S. Supreme Court...