Last week AFT Chief Counsel David Strom presented an update at the BTU on the Friedrichs case, and he passes along the following reports as promised:
An opinion piece in the Washington Post:
Just in time for the 2016 election, the Roberts Court has found yet another way to stack the deck in favor of the rich.
By all appearances at Monday’s argument, the five Republican-appointed justices are ready to upend a 40-year precedent guiding labor relations in favor of a new approach that will deplete public-sector unions’ finances and reduce their political clout…
Another opinion piece in the New York Times:
…On June 30, four days after handing down the marriage decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, the court announced that it would hear a major challenge to the future of public-employee labor unions. That case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, was argued last week. As was widely reported, the outcome appears foreordained: the court will vote 5 to 4 to overturn a precedent that for 39 years has permitted public-employee unions to charge nonmembers a “fair-share” fee representing the portion of union dues that go to representing all employees in collective bargaining and grievance proceedings. As the exclusive bargaining agent, a union has a legal duty to represent everyone in the unit, whether members or not; the fee addresses the problem of “free riders” and the resentment engendered by those who accept the union’s help while letting their fellow workers foot the bill…
And finally, an excellent article, Why Some States Want Strong Public-Sector Unions, from The Atlantic:
As argument commenced at the Supreme Court last Monday, most eyes were on Justice Antonin Scalia. While still the Court’s conservative paterfamilias, union supporters were looking to Scalia as a potential swing vote in their favor in the case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. He had endorsed Abood, the precedent now under scrutiny, in a 1991 case, and strongly defended state and municipal employers’ right to limit employee speech in other contexts. However, as his questioning began, union supporters lost hope.
Scalia seemed skeptical of public-sector employers’ interests in a strong union representing workers, implying that a state would be equally well off bargaining with a weak union with fewer resources…