FDR said it would be “unthinkable and intolerable” for public employee unions to strike against their employers, the taxpayers. After 6 decades of public sector unions, their wings may be getting clipped by the Supreme Court. Stossel explores the cases:
Not just FDR, but AFL-CIO’s George Meany stated in the 1950’s that “It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.” Right up until public sector unions began to spread from Wisconsin in 1959,
“The founders of the labor movement viewed unions as a vehicle to get workers more of the profits they help create, but that collective bargaining had no place in government. When government unions strike, they strike against taxpayers.”
[Once] states began to allow collective bargaining in government. The influx of dues and members quickly changed the union movement’s tune, and collective bargaining in government is now widespread. As a result unions can now insist on laws that serve their interests – at the expense of the common good.
Compare the current state of affairs including forced unionization of state and Federal workers with the
A.F.L.-C.I.O. Executive Council’s 1959 advice: “In terms of accepted collective bargaining procedures, government workers have no right beyond the authority to petition [their legislators] — a right available to every citizen.”
Quotes taken from a 2014 Op-Ed by James Sherk (Heritage)
A few years ago, Teacher Rebecca Friedrichs took on the California Teachers Association, in an attempt to arrange a temporary pay cut to save jobs during the recession. When it became clear that the union did not represent her interests, she sued to opt out of paying dues, and the case reached the Supreme court, but the untimely demise of the great Antonin Scalia handed the union a victory by dint of the court’s deadlock.
Now we have the case of Mark Janus vs American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which is very similar, in that Janus believes his dues are funding activities contrary to his principles, and the case is due to be heard by the Supreme Court, newly fortified by Neil Gorsuch, this Monday (Feb 26th).
The best line in Stossel’s video and the associated blog piece is this from Rebecca Friedrichs: “I never asked for [union] representation…I don’t see it as a benefit…the benefits aren’t worth the moral costs.”
