With the Supreme Court’s widely anticipated decision in Janus v. AFSCME, public employees are now free to make their own decisions about representation in the workplace. Unless they want to, they don’t have to pay unions that — let’s face it — spend most of their time and energy and dues money on Democratic politics.
Viewed another way, states and municipalities dominated by Democrats can no longer make sweetheart closed-shop deals in order to funnel taxpayers’ money to the unions that help them get elected — at least not through the paychecks of nonunion workers who would rather not participate in the scam.
But some people already miss the freedom to live at others’ expense. And so this is ruining the day for a lot of people, judging by my inbox and the reaction on social media.
“Rather than standing up for the interests of working people, in a nakedly partisan ruling determined by a U.S. Supreme Court seat stolen by Mitch McConnell and his Senate cronies, a bare conservative majority gave their wealthy and powerful patrons exactly what they wanted,” reads the statement of Democracy for America, the group founded long, long ago by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.
Morris Pearl of the Democratic front group “Patriotic Millionaires” released this statement: “The decision today made by the US Supreme Court in the Janus v. AFSCME case marks a victory in the decades long Republican campaign to undermine the labor movement. Unfortunately though, it is a victory for everyone except the American worker. This is an assault on the labor movement, full stop, and should not be commemorated as anything less.”
“Today’s Supreme Court decision in Janus v. AFSCME was based on a bogus free speech argument,” said Paul Shearon, Secretary Treasurer of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. “This politically motivated case brought by Mark Janus, paid for by corporate interests, was designed to undercut the bargaining power of those employed in local and state government. This wasn’t about free speech — this was about silencing workers’ voices. The Justices who supported this slap in the face to public employees and their families, reversing settled law, telegraphed that they are little better than political hacks.”
“This ruling pierces the heart of the labor movement,” Stacey Long Simmons of the National LGBTQ task force. “This ruling helps to create an America where corporations have even more rights and working people’s rights are eroded.”
And here’s Sen. Elizabeth “2020” Warren:
Corporate interests have been rigging the system against workers for decades – and the Supreme Court just handed those interests a huge victory in #Janus v. AFSCME. But I’ve got news for the billionaires behind this case: we’re not going anywhere. #Union pic.twitter.com/LAxpB1k3iY
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) June 27, 2018
Now, if this decision is really so anti-worker, and union membership is so good for workers, and workers are capable of discerning their own long-term interests, then I don’t understand all this panic. If all that is true, then I’d expect to see very few government workers drop their union membership over the next 12 months. And in that case, the decision will hardly affect anyone anyway. The hundreds of union officers making six-figure salaries at their respective unions’ D.C. headquarters can rest easy.
But the thing is, no one thinks that’s actually going to happen. Hence all the the wailing and gnashing of teeth.
