Supreme Court Accepts Case to End Forced Union Dues

InsideSources covers Janus v. AFSCME and a statement on the Supreme Court’s decision to hear it by Trey Kovacs.

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to take up a case Thursday which aims at ending mandatory union dues for all public-sector workers.

The case seeks to reverse a decades-old ruling by the court which affirmed the right of labor groups to collect fees from workers who did not want to belong to their workplace union. Lead plaintiff Mark Janus filed the lawsuit alongside two other Illinois state workers.

The lawsuit argues that mandatory union fees in the public sector are a violation of the first amendment. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is the primary union named in the lawsuit, but the ultimate goal is to end mandatory union dues for all public-sector workers.

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The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) also submitted a legal brief to the court July 10 arguing that unions often use forced union dues to pay for conferences and conventions, where many activities are political in nature. Those conferences have allegedly involved discussions on gun control laws and election protests.

“It’s encouraging that the Supreme Court accepted this landmark case addressing the First Amendment rights of all public workers,” Trey Kovacs, labor policy expert at CEI, said in a statement provided to InsideSources. “No hardworking man or woman should be compelled to fund a labor union that does not represent their values or interests. For far too long, workers nationwide have been forced to finance unions they didn’t vote to join and pay to support inherently political organizations. It is time to stop this state-backed union funding scheme.”

Read the full article at InsideSources.