Union officials frequently express concern about the influence of “dark money” in politics, claiming that it is used to unfairly manipulate the system against workers. However, these officials conveniently overlook the fact that Big Labor has been able to manipulate the system in their favor by using money taken from workers under the threat of job loss if they refuse to pay. This power to extort workers into paying union fees still exists for private sector workers who are not protected by a state Right-to-Work law. This law ensures that workers cannot be forced to join a union in order to keep their jobs.
However, a landmark ruling by the US Supreme Court five years ago, known as Janus v. AFSCME, put an end to union officials’ ability to require government workers to fund union politics. The justices ruled that the First Amendment protects public employees from being compelled to financially support government-union speech. This is because the actions of government unions are inherently political, as their purpose is to negotiate how the government operates. The impact of the Janus decision has been significant. The court deemed unconstitutional the legal framework through which union officials had forced workers to subsidize union political activities worth billions of dollars over the years.
Janus immediately freed around 500,000 nonmember unionized government employees from the obligation to pay union fees as a condition of their employment. However, the battle to fully enforce workers’ Janus rights continues to this day. The National Right to Work Foundation’s attorneys have been involved in over 50 subsequent cases, directly assisting in the protection of the rights of an additional 70,000 public employees. Since the Janus ruling, research indicates that approximately 1.2 million government employees have either resigned from a union or chosen not to join, which is equivalent to around one in five American public-sector workers. This has resulted in an estimated loss of $733 million in annual union revenue.
This loss represents a significant blow to the union bosses. However, even if Janus is fully enforced (which is not yet the case, considering the ongoing filing of new cases to defend public employees’ First Amendment Janus rights), it does not necessarily mean an end to the undue political influence of government union bosses. In the majority of US states, laws still empower union officials to impose their representation on all workers in a public sector workplace, regardless of their opposition to the union or their vote against its presence. This “monopoly bargaining” power enables union leaders to control the contracts, salary, benefits, and work rules of numerous workers who openly disagree with them.
Furthermore, this situation forces elected officials, who are accountable to voters, to negotiate with union bosses on public policy matters, leading to increased costs for taxpayers and a decrease in efficiency and accountability. While Janus has made progress in reducing the stranglehold of union bosses over public workers’ rights and their disproportionate influence over government, it is evident that additional measures must be taken to fully protect the First Amendment rights of government workers. Union officials should not have the ability to force public workers under their monopoly representation. Thankfully, the case of Goldstein v. Professional Staff Congress (PSC), currently before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, offers an excellent opportunity to establish such protection.
In Goldstein, six professors from the City University of New York are seeking to challenge a New York state law that compels their representation by the PSC union. These professors strongly oppose being represented by radical PSC officials who have targeted them personally and made anti-Semitic statements. They argue that the forced representation scheme is a violation of their freedom of association under the First Amendment. Public-sector unions should not be able to exploit their monopoly bargaining power to further their political agendas, nor should they be allowed to force workers to financially support their exercise of that power. Five years ago, the Janus decision declared the latter unconstitutional. Hopefully, in another five years, it will be firmly established that public workers also have the First Amendment freedom to reject union representation that they oppose.
Mark Mix is the president of the National Right to Work Foundation.
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