It's the showdown at the Supreme Court Corral Monday for public employee unions and their opponents.
Union opponents are seeking to reverse a 1977 Supreme Court decision that allows public employee unions to collect so-called "fair share fees."
Twenty-three states authorize collecting these fees from those who don't join the union but benefit from a contract that covers them.
The decision later this year will have profound consequences not just for the California teachers in Monday's case, but for police, firefighters, health care workers, and other government workers across the country.
To understand what is at stake, here is a primer in how the labor law works in states that have authorized these fees.
If a majority of the public employees at a given site vote to be represented by a union, that union becomes the exclusive bargaining agent for the workers. In California, some 325,000 teachers in more than 1,000 school districts are represented by the California Teachers Assocation and, to a lesser extent, the California Federation of Teachers.
Of those, 9 percent have not joined the union, but under California law, any union contract must cover them too, and so they are required to pay an amount that covers the costs of negotiating the contract and administering it. The idea is that they reap the bread-and-butter benefits covered by the contract — wages, leave policies, grievance procedures, etc. — so they should bear some of the cost of negotiating that contract.
They do not, however, have to pay for the union's lobbying or political activities; they can opt out of that by signing a one-page form.
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
16 comments:
No I dont agree with it. And furthermore GOVERNMENT agencys of any kind should not be union. That especially includes cops, teachers, and firefighters.
I was forced into membership with Afscme. I pay the union dues under protest. This was O'Malley's doing while he was governor. I along with others have contacted our legislators to try and get this over turned. They don't represent me or my values. They represent the Democratic party and their values are socialist. White males need not apply!!!!
No one should have to pay a union if they aren't members. Maybe the unions should give people a real reason to join instead of shoving politics down workers' throats. Yes this includes you MSEA and WCEA.... not worth a penny.
If AFSCME manage to get you Al a lucrative pay raise, don't you come a calling.
11:17 Afscme doesn't do crap for the state workers. They take our money and use it to keep themselves in business. To me they are parasites. They talk a good game, and maybe I would support them if they came to us legally and had us vote whether or not we want to be in a Union. The support the Democratic party with my funds. They don't support my values or beliefs. They do not speak to me personally or to most of the people who work with me.
11:6 you are right. Msea and their puppy Msea are useless for everyone but liberal politicians
wow ya'll figured it out. The only thing unions care about is their fat cat jobs and salaries. They perpetuate themselves just like any other entity at the expense of their members!
I was recently hired by Ocean City Fire, and can tell you first hand, THE UNION SUCKS! They fight the fights they shouldn't, and only care about their paid leave time off. I had to join, and it's grossly unfair. It's a small click that only cares about themselves. They can't even get a quorum at their meetings.
2:26 Maybe if you attended the meetings a change could take place. The problem is the IAFF leadership, just like the rest of the Country. It's becoming a liberal driven world of expectations.
The teacher's union is like a modern day mafia. If you disagree with their agenda, oppose their views, or try to make them accountable, they will do whatever it takes to get rid of you including performing illegal office takeovers and making up lies to discredit you. They also shun non member workers and call them free riders if they want nothing to do with the them. Right MSEA? Right WCEA?
4:22
Unions are nothing more than legalized mafia.
Tell me what the difference is between the way a union operates and the way Tony Soprano operated?
Screw the unions, that's their M.O. with everyone else. O'Mally/Obama are their only friends in high places.
Unions and their bosses are thieves. There should be no such thing as a "public" union.
When Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, there was a need for unions because workers were being exploited and child labor in the textile/garment industry was atrocious. However, with the creation of the Department of Labor -- then OSHA many years later, the use for unions became obsolete because there were workplace laws instated where none had existed before.
Let's revisit 2012 and Hostess shall we? None of those union 'bosses' suffered when the plant shut down and move all operations to Mexico. Some of their rules were crazy. For example: Wonder Bread had to be delivered in a separate truck than Twinkies. And it took two crews to load the two different trucks because by union rule, they were not allowed to have Wonder people intermix with the Twinkies. It's this kind of balderdash that keeps people unemployed or under paid because unions tamper with the right for owners to run their companies as they will as long as they work within the guidelines of the law.
Another example: Chicago Teachers. They went on strike and what happened? While they got pay raises, guess what happened next? The union raised their 'dues' almost the same proportion as the pay raise. Basically, this constituted to the teachers trucking their wares in the cold so the union bosses could get their kick back. Nice, right?
Unions play on the uneducated and misinformed. They're a plague on our society and they should be done away with altogether. It will not happen until the workers rear up and take a stand against them. As long as they buy the manure they are spoon fed, they will always advocate unions because it's a short cut to the boss and a way for them to not take a stand directly with management. For that, they have to pay protection money which constitutes nothing more than your average street gang, hitting up local businesses for cash for a guarantee they will protect the merchant from 'problems.'
Oh my goodness. How could I ever forget to do a local tie-in so people will demonize me for being the bearer of bad tidings...
How has unions affected Salisbury? Think Crown Cork & Seal, think Dresser, think Chris Craft. And the list goes on and on and on. Campbell Soup had a plant in Salisbury back in the day - strikes and unions inspired the company to close the plant. Dresser - struck once too often and boom, gone! Many Salisbarians lost their pensions, retirement savings, got no severance and were left to look for jobs in a over-saturated market. Many Verizon employees were 'laid off' during some of their strikes of recent.
I would be curious to see how the teachers' union is fairing with having their teachers in harm's way over the last two days here in Wicomico County. Are they striking over this? Have we heard one iota of a word? Not even a whisper, in fact. Now, if Wicomico announced they were doing a 10% salary cut across the board, those union bosses would be dancing from the rafters, yelling and hooting about striking and contract violations, but a little danger in a teacher's life is just irrelevant and unimportant. Crickets emerge.
It's just bad business. Unions should be filed in the 'where are they now' file and be a part of our work past not present.
Also look at the food and commercial workers union for SuperFresh employees. They didn't help them to find work and the Union abandoned them. Now most of them are unemployed or working a minimum wage job. Unions are organized crime. They are parasites that feed off the workers wages and offer empty promises. For workers to have a voice, the unions needs to be destroyed and rebuilt from scratch. They are in bed with the government and corporations to keep themselves alive.
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