In 2018 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME that public employees cannot be forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment.
The Washington Times explains, “The Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus ruling said it was a violation of public sector workers’ First Amendment rights to require them to support a union against their wishes. The ruling said that the dues money could be taken only if the worker ‘affirmatively consents.'”
The court though, as is its custom, didn’t go far enough.
Instead of specifying the employee must opt-in and do so on a regular basis, the court made a vague ruling that once again ignored the entirely predictable response to the ruling from the losing side.
Losing the ability to charge union dues to willing and unwilling employees alike should have crippled the ability of these leftist unions to fund Democratic campaigns and assert pressure for bigger and more expensive government.
But it didn’t.
Because many unions ignored the ruling or reportedly simply forged signature cards for employees to keep the money rolling into the union treasury.
Which should have been obvious.
Sean Higgins, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), writes, “many unions have adopted a novel legal strategy in response: forgery. In case after case, workers have had money taken directly out of their paychecks by unions based on forged authorizations.”
AFSCME, the union that lost the ruling, has made a habit of using forged dues deduction authorization cards.
In California one of the cards involved in a court case, “had the wrong date of birth, her ex-husband’s phone number — not hers — and a forged signature.”
In Oregon AFSCME pulled the same trick: a forged authorization card.
And when unions aren’t working on your penmanship they are stonewalling member’s requests to opt out of dues payments.
Higgins explains, “In some cases, unions never bother to tell workers of their rights under the [Supreme Court] decision.”
Even when they do the roadblocks are more extensive than a Hamas demonstration.
“Thus, workers must invoke their Janus rights through their unions, and unions frequently fight tooth and nail to deny those rights.
“State and local authorities rely on the unions’ say-so in these cases and rarely, if ever, pursue these cases as theft.
“Unions force workers to follow arbitrary and bafflingly complex rules to opt out.The process usually involves brief time windows when workers can opt out and long, drawn-out periods for processing workers’ requests.”
It’s no surprise the cases Higgins points out are in Blue states.
There, unions have purchased the government through campaign contributions — the money coming from dues payments — and votes from union members. Politicians there aren’t going to be interested in killing or even punishing their golden goose.
There is a two-step solution to this lawless union theft from unwilling members.
The Freedom Foundation has bundled five of these cases into a lawsuit it will to appeal to the high court.
There it hopes this willful union defiance will persuade the wooly–headed justices to issue a ruling with some teeth.
The second part of the solution is to inject some much-needed democracy into union representation. As it currently stands the employees hold an election to certify a union and it’s one and done, just like Russian President Vladimir Putin’s election.
Congressmen must be re-elected every two years, senators every six years, and the president every four years.
Not unions. They never stand for regular re-election or recertification.
That must change.
Public employee unions are the sworn enemies of Republicans, yet the GOP seems afraid to challenge union power. Even when they control all three branches of government, our comb-over conservatives do nothing.
What they should do is emulate Wisconsin.
There Act 10 forced public employee unions to regularly endure recertification elections. The results were dramatic.
The Wisconsin Policy Forum found 97% of county employee unions were decertified. Municipal employees dumped 73% of their unions.
All other public employees dumped their unions 60% of the time.
The unions lost because vast majorities of public employees there felt the union didn’t represent them and charged too much for the meager services it provided.
Naturally, the only public employees where a slim majority kept their union were your friendly neighborhood groomers in government schools.
Teachers kept their union 56% of the time.
It was a mistake to let federal workers join unions in the first place.
If Republicans won’t abolish those anti-taxpayer cabals, the least they can do is free oppressed government employees and inject some democracy into federal employee unions.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker’s bureau. Read Michael Reagan’s Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of “Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)” Read Michael Shannon’s Reports — More Here.
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