Sunday, January 28, 2018

SCOTUS set to deliver major financial setback to public-sector unions

Good news may be coming soon from the US Supreme Court, perhaps the best news since Donald Trump was elected president.

From USA Today:
The nation's powerful public employee unions stand to lose membership, money and political muscle at the hands of the Supreme Court this year. The only question appears to be how much.

On the court's docket next month are fees paid in 22 states by police, firefighters, teachers and other government workers who decline to join unions that must represent them anyway. But much more is at stake in a nation with declining union membership and growing economic inequality.

After three tries in 2012, 2014 and 2016, the high court is poised to reverse its own 40-year-old precedent and strike down the so-called "fair share" fees as unconstitutional. The 1977 ruling said workers did not have to pay for unions' political activity. The verdict expected by June would allow them to contribute nothing at all.

If the court's five conservatives vote the way both sides anticipate, public employee unions in traditionally Democratic states in the Northeast and West will lose those workers and the fees they pay. Other lawsuits could follow if workers are allowed to band together and seek refunds for fees already paid.
Public-sector unions are nothing my government working to create more government--screwing over taxpayers. The public-sector union pension bomb is destroying states such as Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Illinois.

2 comments:

Merle Widmer said...

Would be a MAJOR victory for the Trump Aministration. Thanks, John

Anonymous said...

This would affect many government employees in Illinois.