Union-Boss ‘Hero’ Turns Out to Be a Fraud
In December 2020, the hierarchy of the notoriously corrupt United Auto Workers (UAW) entered into a federal consent decree after a dozen high-ranking union officers and staff members
Will Idaho Bust Big Labor Collection Racket?
Committee Aids State Efforts to Curb Union Privileges
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, eight 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.
In order to ensure that the rights defined in Janus are practicable, state lawmakers have to take several modest steps.
And one commendable way to start is terminating the automatic deduction of union dues from public employees’ paychecks.
Fortunately, since Janus, several states have withdrawn this unwarranted perk for government union bosses, requiring them to act as their own dues collectors.
In 2021, West Virginia protected all kinds of state and local 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 all opted to allow the government to continue collecting dues from civil servants for all or most public safety union bosses.
Politicians’ failure to protect public employees across the board has already helped union bosses get similar laws in Indiana, Missouri, and Kentucky overturned in court because of perceived “equal protection” concerns.
Despite its limitations, the Florida law has made an especially big difference. Since 2023, the membership of the Florida Education Association (NEA, AFT/AFLCIO) teacher union has plummeted. In 2024 alone, it fell by 15%!
House Passage in 2025 Was Eased by Pro-Right to Work Candidates’ Primary Wins
In past Idaho legislatures, efforts to curtail teacher union bosses’ special privileges have stalled. A bill to repeal local school districts’ “duty to bargain” with monopolistic teacher unions passed the House in 2021, but went nowhere in the Senate.
In 2024, a move to eliminate so-called “official time,” i.e., allowing government union bosses to conduct union business on taxpayers’ dime, failed on the Idaho House floor.
Prospects have recently improved, thanks to significant turnover in the 2024 Republican primaries in both chambers of the Idaho Legislature.
National Right to Work Committee Vice President John Kalb commented: “Thanks to the Committee’s previous successful bids to secure roll-call floor votes on key issues and other grassroots citizens’ efforts, many 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.”
Last year, a ban on automatic payroll deduction privileges for teacher union bosses, H.98, passed 40-29 through the House on February 12.
Grassroots Activists Urge Senate Chairman to Stop Blocking Reform
Sadly, this measure never received a vote in the Senate during the 2025 session. Another effort to get the bill over the finish line is expected this year, and it’s vital that Idahoans keep turning up the pressure on their legislators to protect public-sector workers from being abused by entrenched unions.
Mr. Kalb pointed out that H.98 never came up for a Senate vote last year due to an evidently unilateral decision by State Affairs Committee Chairman Jim Guthrie (R-McCammon):
“Even though 65% of his fellow Republicans in the Idaho House cast their ballots for H.98, propelling it through the chamber by a lopsided margin, Jim Guthrie decided, for reasons he never explained publicly, not even to grant it a Senate hearing.
“That’s why the Committee has been recently mobilizing Sen. Guthrie’s freedom-loving constituents to contact him and express their disappointment about his doing teacher union bosses’ dirty work for them.
“I am cautiously optimistic Mr. Guthrie has now gotten the message.”
This article was originally published in our monthly newsletter. Go here to access previous newsletter posts.
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