Public employee unions assess damage of Supreme Court ruling
EVERETT — The U.S. Supreme Court fractured the foundation of public employee unions Wednesday when it ruled government workers cannot be forced to pay a fee to labor unions representing them in negotiating salary and benefits and other matters.
Its 5-4 ruling erases a 1977 precedent that had enabled Washington and other states to require public employees, including teachers, to pay some amount of money for the services provided by the union, even if they chose not to join.
And the decision also puts the kibosh on a brand new state law in Washington to automatically enroll new government hires into a labor union unless the person took action to opt out. Democratic lawmakers pushed the legislation through in hopes of buffeting the state from an anti-union ruling.
Union leaders and their political allies blasted the decision from the court’s conservative majority as an attack on teachers, public safety personnel and government workers. Many of them downplayed the potential of the legal double-whammy to thin their ranks and shrink their coffers.
“In some ways the Janus decision has been a clarion call for ‘Let’s organize’,” said Jeff Johnson, president of the Washington State Labor Council. Anti-labor forces “thought the court decision was going to silence us. It’s doing just the opposite. We’re going to grow.”
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