Column: Case is key to public workers’ free speech

Jesse Hathaway Dec. 27, 2017

As thoughts turn to celebrating the incoming year, a Supreme Court case, Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, could give government workers a reason to be merry in 2018, by freeing them from union captivity and delivering a big win for personal liberty.

More than 40 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled on a similar case, Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, in which the court determined teachers lacked the right to fully opt out of union membership while employed in a public school system where teachers are unionized.  Objecting public servants may “opt out” of paying the portion of their involuntary membership fee, but because money is fungible, union bosses still use individuals’ money to speak for what the union boss wants.

 

In 2016, Mark Janus, an Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services child support specialist, sued the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, arguing the union was infringing upon his rights by extracting membership dues from his paycheck without his consent........To Read More.........

My Take - The truth of the matter is this needs to be expanded to include regular votes on whether the member even what a union or whether or not they want the current union.  Most of these unions were voted in decades ago and now the current employees are stuck with them and now the union is not the servant of the membership - it's their master - and the rules for kicking a union out are so difficult it's more mafia like than democratic.