some union members might decide to stop paying dues if they could in essence get the union’s representation for free.
A death knell for unions.
Ending minimum wage and child labor laws (for the children Rethugliklans and their NRA masters choose to let live) will be next.
We’ll be back to the Gilded Age before you know it.
I am not hopeful about this.
Workers in America have no sense of history, and indicate forcefully time and time again their willingness to work like animals for peanuts. I do not understand how the vast millions of underpaid workers at Walmart and Amazon don’t just stand up and demand a decent living wage, or simply walk out! There is no longer any tradition in America of labor flexing their muscle even with the huge power they have in their numbers and their labor. Remarkable.
There have been protests at Walmart and fast food places, as for Amazon they contract out most of their warehouse workers. The problem for most retail workers is that the companies cut hours. B&N just cut workers and hours of workers, middle management is constricting so they aren’t firing as many people but when those people in middle management leave they won’t be replaced.
As for Janus ( name of Roman god with two faces, seems apropos) he’s not following the Right To Work mantra of if you don’t like the conditions of your job leave and get one that you like.
The case only applies to unions representing state government employees. The answer to an adverse decision is blindingly obvious. States could easily change their laws so that public employee unions only bargain on behalf of their members. Right now, they must also bargain on behalf of all employees, whether or not they are union members. So, today, a government employee (most often a teacher or police officer or fire fighter) gets the benefit - whether or not they have joined the union - of the pay increase that a union got through a collective bargaining agreement with the government agency. If that were changed so that only dues paying union members got the benefit of a collective bargaining agreement, then government employees could make a rational decision about union membership. If you don’t want to pay dues, that’s your right. But you can’t both decide not to join the union and, at the same time, get the wages, hours and working conditions that the union has achieved through the collective bargaining process. My guess is that almost all employees would choose union membership, paying the dues and getting the benefits. For those who don’t want to, they don’t have to. But they don’t get to be free riders.
Union my whole life till retirement in construction.
Collective bargaining agreement
Trained workers
Safe working conditions
Decent wage
Decent pension
Super annuity
All things a republican despises.
By the way, the 911 clean up was all union workers in every category. Not something advertised very much. Private companies and slave labor could not even come close to getting the work accomplished.
I know because I was there, working
For those who don’t want to, they don’t have to. But they don’t get to be free riders.
Absolutely Correct
I think you meant the Gelded Age, the way the GOP is cutting things…
It’s not like Democrats are any great friend to unions for the last several decades; they use them when they can and do nothing for unions when they are in power. Remember “card check”; unions asking that votes for unionization be conducted in a fair way where a majority of those voting decide, rather than the way employers like it where all those who don’t vote get counted as “no”. Unions supported Democrats and asked for card check, and when Democrats were in charge they just couldn’t seem to get it together enough to pass it. When was the last time you heard a Democrat call for stronger unions? When was the last time you heard Democrats call for less free trade to keep good union jobs in the U.S.?
Democrats sure hate Trump, but when are they going to offer a better alternative, like a strong stand for working people; a higher minimum wage, support for unions, and less outsourcing?
Use to be’s don’t count anymore, they just lay on the floor till we sweep them away.
The unions and the dems use to work side by side for many years.
Then it began. Concessions at the contract table.
From that point on it was downhill.
I retired just in time before the unions lost the edge and the backing they use to have.
Lucky break I guess.
It sure seems that way, but you must also throw in the ignorance and utter contempt the WORKERS have for labor unions and their pushing for better wages and conditions! They do everything to weaken their own hand!
I see hard hats guys from the “white guy unions” here in NYC, and jusging from their conversations and bumper stickers I would wager about 80% of them vote Republican consistently. Many union members refuse to do anything more helpful than cash their union checks, blame Democrats for everything, and keep voting Republican.That isn’t working.
I think it is a generational thing.
As time has gone by the “workers” want the most while providing the least.
I live by the adage, All I ever wanted is a good day’s pay for a good day’s work plus the benefits paid according to the collective bargain agreement and supporting, working, standing picket lines, going to meetings etc.
Not so hard to fathom, one would think.
But it sure has changed.
The motto now is: I want all I can get and don’t want to put much effort into it.
Like sports,
millions of dollars to swing a baseball bat and catch a ball.
Millions of dollars to slam a ball thru a hoop.
Millions of dollars to catch, run or throw a football.
The idea of the games has never changed, just the greed.
I wonder what just 10 more years into the future is going to prove to be. yikes!!!