Right to Work Winning by More Than 2:1
Employment in Right to Work States up by 10.1 Million Since 2014
Idahoans Target Big Labor Collection Racket
State Senate Battle Looms After House Votes to Protect Teachers
In 2018, thanks largely to the efforts of National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys and their employee clients, the U.S. Supreme Court finally recognized that public employees nationwide have a constitutional right to join and pay dues to a union, or refuse to do either.
From the very day the High Court’s landmark ruling in Janus v. AFSCME was announced, seven years ago this June, it was obvious this decision would not be self-enforcing. And unfortunately, the First Amendment is still being widely violated today.
Idaho Looking to Follow Path Forged by Florida And Several Other States
In order to ensure that the rights defined in Janus are practicable, state lawmakers have to take several significant steps. And one commendable way to start is by terminating the automatic deduction of union dues from public employees’ paychecks.
Fortunately, since Janus, several states have withdrawn this unwarranted perk from government union bosses, requiring them to act as their own dues collectors.
In 2021, West Virginia protected all kinds of public employees from automatic union dues deductions. Two years later, Arkansas, Tennessee and, most notably, Florida ended automatic payroll deduction privileges for many, but not all, government union bosses.
Unfortunately, Arkansas, Tennessee and Florida opted to allow the government to continue collecting dues for all or most public-safety union bosses. But Florida simultaneously required teacher and many other government union bosses to persuade 60% or more of the workers over whom they wield control to join the union voluntarily, or lose their monopoly-bargaining privileges.
Since 2023, the membership of the Florida Education Association (NEA, AFT/AFL-CIO) teacher union has plummeted. Last year alone, it fell by 15%!
“Dozens of Florida state and local government union locals have decided to close shop in the face of mass employee indifference and/or hostility rather than face an election they knew they would lose,” said National Right to Work Committee Vice President John Kalb.
Idaho House Passage Was Eased by Pro-Right to Work Candidates’ Primary Wins
“Idaho prospects are better this year than in 2021, thanks to significant turnover in the Republican primaries last year in both chambers of the Idaho Legislature,” said Mr. Kalb.
“Thanks to the Committee’s previous successful bids to secure roll-call floor votes on key issues and other grassroots citizens’ efforts, many of the GOP politicians who were often aligned with teacher union bosses were defeated and replaced by more consistent foes of government union abuses.
“School choice proponents’ efforts in particular have been very helpful for Right to Work, because virtually all the Idaho legislators who support school choice also support curtailing teacher union bosses’ monopoly privileges.”
This year’s ban on automatic payroll deduction privileges for teacher union bosses, H.B.98, passed 40-29 through the House on February 12, and is awaiting Senate action as this Newsletter goes to press in early April.
H.B.98 would also prohibit “official time” for teacher union activists.
Protecting Only Certain Types of Public Workers Invites Court Challenges
Even as the Committee pushed for Senate approval of H.B.98, Mr. Kalb had some words of caution:
“In a few states, legislation designed to protect certain kinds of public servants while excluding others has proven to be vulnerable to ‘equal protection’ state court challenges.
“This has already resulted in the overturning of laws protecting selected public employees’ rights in Indiana, Missouri and Kentucky.
“For this and other reasons, state lawmakers are better advised to deny automatic payroll deduction privileges to government union bosses across the board.”
This article was originally published in our monthly newsletter. Go here to access previous newsletter posts.
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