The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it is unconstitutional to require non-union state workers in Illinois to pay “fair share” fees to a union, but a Chicago federal appeals panel is considering whether a union must refund millions of dollars in fees already collected.

The appeal was brought by former state employee Mark Janus to force the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees to reimburse him for “fair share” fees he had to pay the union as a non-union worker. The fees, which were slightly less than union dues, were allowed by Illinois law to cover the union’s costs of collective bargaining and representation.

In the 10 months since the U.S. Supreme Court restored workers’ rights and affirmed the tenets of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, more than 210,000 public employees across the country no longer are being forced to pay fees to unions they don’t support.

They can thank Illinois’ Mark Janus and others like him for their newfound freedom.

While hundreds of thousands have been freed from paying these unconstitutional fees, many unions still are making it as difficult as possible for workers to exercise their rights.

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Dan McCaleb | Illinois man at heart of Supreme Court case continues fight

Sun, 04/14/2019 – 7:00am | Dan McCaleb

In the 10 months since the U.S. Supreme Court restored workers’ rights and affirmed the tenets of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, more than 210,000 public employees across the country no longer are being forced to pay fees to unions they don’t support.

They can thank Illinois’ Mark Janus and others like him for their newfound freedom.

Janus was a former child support specialist for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services. He was forced to pay AFSCME Council 31 a part of his salary for 10 years, even though he declined to join the union and disagreed with the union’s politics — including their collective-bargaining position of demanding huge pay increases from a state that is broke.

Union advocates maintained the dues Janus was forced to pay to AFSCME were his “fair share” for the wages and benefits the union negotiated on his behalf.

And for 40 years, a legal precedent set by the Supreme Court in 1977 had backed the unions.

But Janus wasn’t satisfied with the precedent. He felt strongly that his First Amendment rights guaranteeing his freedom to associate with whom he wanted — or not to associate with a union he wanted no part of — were being violated.

So he joined a lawsuit that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Last June, the Supreme Court agreed with him and struck down forced union fees as unconstitutional.

Since then, more than 210,000 Americans who were being forced to pay these fees to two of the largest public-sector unions no longer are paying.

That statistic is based on analysis from U.S. Department of Labor reports released last week.

“These numbers are an incredible confirmation of what we argued during my case: that all across the country, hundreds of thousands of government workers like me were forced against their will to give money to government unions, just so they could keep their jobs,” Janus said. “That’s why the decision in my case is so powerful. It freed these workers, and each of the 5 million public-sector workers in America, from mandatory union fees.”

Janus left his state of Illinois job shortly after the Supreme Court decision.

He now is a senior fellow with the Chicago-based Liberty Justice Center, which represented him during his lawsuit against the forced fees. Janus and the rest of the LJC team continue their fight for workers’ rights.

While hundreds of thousands have been freed from paying these unconstitutional fees, many unions still are making it as difficult as possible for workers to exercise their rights.

The Liberty Justice Center, for example, is representing two University of California system workers who resigned from their unions and opted out of paying union fees in the wake of Janus vs. AFSCME.

Despite the Supreme Court’s decision, the workers say the university continues to deduct these fees. Similar lawsuits have been filed in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Oregon and elsewhere.

“Unfortunately, thousands more government workers are facing obstacles exercising their Janus rights,” Janus said. “My fight on their behalf will continue until all government workers can easily exercise their right to choose whether to support a union or not.”

National Review features Mark Janus in their March issue. Meet Mark Janus, the man who ended compulsory union dues.

He asked the Supreme Court to acknowledge his First Amendment rights, and it did.

An average guy, provoked enough, can accomplish things that are above average.

Mark Janus is such a guy. Provoked by what he believed was a bald violation of his First Amendment rights, he took action to see them protected. And he prevailed. Big time, as an average guy might say.

The state House late Friday approved a bill that would bar counties in New Mexico from enforcing local “right-to-work” ordinances. The proposal would stipulate that only the state government could establish a law barring labor unions from collecting fees from nonunion members in unionized workplaces.

Teacher op-ed: As a teacher in Minnesota, I didn’t have a choice about whether or not to pay the union that was supposed to represent me, and when my union ultimately failed to stand by my side during a dispute with my district, I had no choice but to continue paying it.