In The News Archives - Page 7 of 12

Washington Post: Why I took my case over forced union dues to the Supreme Court

Mark Janus was the plaintiff in Janus v. AFSCME.

My home state of Illinois is in financial free fall. The state has billions of dollars in unpaid bills, has unbalanced budgets and is bleeding people and money.

A state doesn’t get into a mess like this overnight. It’s the result of many seemingly small decisions over many years. It’s for that reason that I fought to not be part of that mess — all the way up to the Supreme Court.

WSJ: The Lawyers Who Beat the Unions

Vindication for the First Amendment rights of public employees was a long time in coming, and states are still trying to rig their laws against workers who don’t want to join.

Fox News: In Janus ruling, Supreme Court restores free speech rights to public workers like me

Teacher op-ed: In my home state of Alaska, teachers and other public employees are forced to pay fees to unions they didn’t choose to represent them, in order to hold the jobs they love.

Before moving to Alaska, I was a teacher in Idaho, a right-to-work state, where membership in a union is a choice. I chose not to belong.

Sun Times: Janus decision biggest victory for workers’ rights in a generation

The United States Supreme Court has just delivered the biggest victory for workers’ rights in a generation. The case is Janus v. AFSCME. The plaintiff is Mark Janus, a child-support specialist who works for the state of Illinois. And I’m proud that the litigation firm of which I am president, the Liberty Justice Center, represented Mark in this landmark case.

Washington Examiner: Supreme Court’s Janus ruling finally gives a voice to 5M workers

The government can no longer force its employees to pay a union as a condition of their employment. That’s what the Supreme Court decided on Wednesday in the case Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

This decision is life-changing for about 5 million government workers in 22 states, who have been forced to give part of every paycheck to a government union just to do their jobs.

Seattle Times: Janus ruling empowers public employees

For 41 years, it’s been individual workers who have been unfairly silenced by having their voice in whether to join a public-sector union stripped from them. That stops now.

Illinois State Government Stops Collecting “Fair Share” Fees for AFSCME, Other Government Worker Unions

The state will stop deducting agency fees from workers who have opted out of the union, effective immediately.

As of June 27, the state of Illinois will no longer deduct union agency fees from the paychecks of nonmember public employees. Previously, Illinois workers were forced to pay fees to government unions as a condition of their employment.

Democrat and Chronicle: What the Janus decision means in New York, the nation’s most unionized state

ALBANY – The Supreme Court ruling Wednesday that unions cannot collect fees from non-members could have wide implications across New York, which has the nation’s most heavily unionized public sector.

Unions in New York derided the groundbreaking decision by the closely divided Supreme Court as it may weaken their membership, but business groups and union critics applauded the measure. New York’s labor leaders said they will work hard to encourage public workers to continue to pay all fees and dues.

New York has the highest percentage of union workers in the nation.

Supreme Court’s union ruling helps balance the scales for taxpayers

Headlines about the US Supreme Court’s ruling in the Janus case stressed the “blow” to public-sector unions, but government workers were big winners. Taxpayers, too.

The court said employees who don’t join unions shouldn’t have to pay “agency fees,” even though the unions bargain on their behalf. That’s partly because, under the law, nonunion workers have no choice but to let the unions negotiate for them; they’re not allowed to represent themselves or have another union go to bat for them.

Daily Signal: Supreme Court Strikes Down Mandatory Union Fees for Government Employees

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday that nonunion government workers can’t be forced to pay dues or other fees to support a union, further diminishing the power of organized labor and setting up what right-to-work proponents called the “hard work” of protecting free speech rights for the nation’s government employees.

Right-to-work advocates also expressed concern about what they see as ongoing conflicts of interest between public employee unions and the government officials whom those same unions help elect into positions of influence over union contracts negotiated at taxpayer expense.