US Supreme Court appears poised to rule against unions
U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. AP FILE PHOTO
WASHINGTON, United States—The US Supreme Court appeared likely Monday to deal a major blow to public employee unions that could see them lose millions of dollars in fees that state laws force non-union members to pay.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy, who often holds the balance between the court’s progressive and conservative wings, both hinted they could side against the unions.
The nine justices are weighing a challenge brought by a group of California public school teachers who say they should not be forced to pay dues to the state union that negotiates their collective contract.
Under California law, non-unionized teachers at public schools cannot go it alone, the government having decided that negotiating with a single interlocutor is in the best interest of all.
The system, upheld in a 1977 Supreme Court decision, has been adopted by more than 20 US states and has been consistently reaffirmed by the courts.
Union membership in the United States has dropped since the late 1950s, leaving public sector unions as one of the last bastions of the American labor movement.
Education, police and firefighters are the most highly unionized sectors, with a workforce that is about 35 percent unionized, compared to about 11 percent for the rest of the country, according to 2014 data.
Millions of workers affected
Monday’s hearing comes against the backdrop of a so-called “right to work” offensive led by conservatives in recent years.
Both Roberts and Kennedy were skeptical of the California Teachers Association’s claim that non-union members would be freeloading if they are no longer required to pay the union’s fees because they would benefit from collective bargaining for free.
Since most of the California teachers union’s members appear to support collective bargaining, “it seems to me the free-rider concern that’s been raised is really insignificant,” said Roberts.
Kennedy said the unions are “making these teachers ‘compelled riders’ for issues on which they strongly disagree.”
Justice Antonin Scalia also expressed sympathy with the teachers’ argument that their free speech rights as guaranteed under the US Constitution are violated when they are forced to pay union dues.
“The problem is that everything that is collectively bargained with the government is within the political sphere, almost by definition,” he said.
The court’s progressive justices expressed a clear reluctance to overturn a system that has been shown to work over four decades.
“These contracts affect millions of employees, maybe as high as 10 million employees,” said Justice Elena Kagan.
She warned that throwing the state laws out would create a “heavy burden.”
Labor unions and think tanks also raised alarm this week over the likely impact of overturning the state laws.
“The intended effect is to essentially bankrupt public sector unions, including many nurse unions that advocate for patient safety,” said Jean Ross, co-president of National Nurses United, the country’s largest nurses’ union.
Ross said it would allow public employees to gain the advantage of union membership, including wage increases, health coverage and retirement benefits, “while avoiding any financial responsibility to help support the work done by their union on their behalf.”
Michele Jawando, of the Center for American Progress, said striking down the laws would make it harder for workers to organize.
“While some may see this attack as only impacting unions, the reality is this is a direct strike at the middle class,” she said.
“If the court sides with right to work conservative advocates, employers will have an increasingly upper hand in negotiations.”
Outside the court, several dozen protesters gathered before the start of the hearing in support of the union position and denouncing “corporate greed.”
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