Friday, February 23, 2018

Unions worry as SCOTUS hears dues suit

John Stossel: Unions think you should be forced to pay for their ‘benefits’ – will Supreme Court agree? | Fox News:

February 21, 2018 - "If your workplace is a union shop, are you forced to pay union dues? Next week, the Supreme Court will hear arguments about that.

"When I worked at CBS and ABC, I was ordered to join the American Federation of Radio and TV Artists. That union had won a vote that gave them the right to speak for all reporters. I said, 'I'm no 'artist.' I'm a reporter! I won't join!' But my bosses said they couldn't pay me unless I did.

"In right-to-work states, unions can't force people to join. But only 28 states are right to work. Aging socialist bureaucracies like New York state are not among them. But now the Supreme Court may say that no government worker, in any state, can be forced to pay a union.

"'If we lose this case, the entire public sector will be right to work,' warns Lee Saunders, president of AFSCME, the big government employees union.

That outcome would thrill Rebecca Friedrichs. She's the teacher who filed the right-to-work lawsuit that went to the Supreme Court two years ago.... But shortly before the justices voted, Antonin Scalia died.... Without Scalia's vote, the Court deadlocked 4 to 4.

"Now a new suit has been filed by government worker Mark Janus. With Neil Gorsuch now the ninth justice, unions are worried.

"In fact, they are so worried that AFSCME representative Steven Kreisberg agreed to do one of my YouTube interviews.

"'Our members ... want their union to have power,' he said. 'It's (Janus') right to dissent and not be a member of our union. He only has to pay the fees that are used to represent him.... I'm not sure if he doesn't agree with it, or just simply doesn't want to pay because he'd like to get those services for free'....

"Janus's lawsuit points out that Thomas Jefferson wrote, 'To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.'

"Kreisberg had a quick answer to that: 'Thomas Jefferson had no sense of 21st-century labor relations.'"

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/02/21/john-stossel-unions-think-should-be-forced-to-pay-for-their-benefits-will-supreme-court-agree.html
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