The United Steelworkers union strongly condemns the split decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to side with big-money interests and harm the ability of public sector workers to collectively bargain.
Make no mistake, this case was an attack on unions, working people and the causes that the labor movement fights for every day. But no court case will stop unions and their supporters from fighting back against efforts to weaken and divide us.
This assault on workers was financed by conservative, right-wing billionaires and the organizations they support, including the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, to undermine labor and the quality family-sustaining jobs that have developed over decades of collective bargaining.
At issue was the ability of unions in the public sector to collect agency or fair share fees from non-members who benefit from the higher negotiated wages, benefits and working conditions in unionized workplaces.
No worker was required to join a union under this system, and both union members and non-members could opt out of political and other costs not directly associated with bargaining.
Yet unions are required to represent those non-member free riders in bargaining and settling work-related problems with employers. If this sounds like an attack to defund unions, that’s because it is.
The ruling overturned precedent established in a 1977 case known as Abood v. the Detroit Board of Education, which basically affirmed that a union shop, then legal in much of the private sector, was legal in the public sector.
For more than 40 years, through Republican and Democratic administrations, the law has recognized that unions and employers have the freedom to negotiate agreements under which everybody contributes his or her fair share.
This attack on public sector workers, including teachers and emergency service personnel, must be a wakeup call for all union members and their supporters to stand with our brothers and sisters.
Now that the anti-union movement has gotten its way in the Janus case, the next likely step for Republicans and the conservative rich is to propose a national right-to-work (for less) law.
Unions have proven to be one of the most effective ways to move people from poverty into the middle class, especially for women and minorities. They sustain families and make communities stronger.
We must organize and demand that our elected leaders candidates enact public policies that will make it easier, not harder, for people to join unions.