Conservatives quietly won their biggest victory against unions in years thanks to this week’s Supreme Court ruling.
Tim Pearce, at the Daily Caller, explains:
A Washington union agreed to stop skimming dues out of the paychecks of home health care workers caring for patients with Medicaid, according to the Freedom Foundation.
The free market think tank Freedom Foundation filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Washington state and local 775 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in July. The lawsuit stemmed from the state taking union due payments out of Medicaid payments to the home health care workers on behalf of their clients.
Other states stopped the practice in 2014 after the Supreme Court ruled in Harris v. Quinn that deducting union dues without the express consent of the home health care worker was unconstitutional. The dues, known as “agency fees” for workers not explicitly members of the union, were meant to cut down onfree-riding, or benefitting from collective bargaining without financing the union’s activities. (RELATED: Lawsuit: Forced Union Dues Scheme Violates Supreme Court Orders)
“It’s difficult to understate how brazen unions like SEIU can be when it comes to taking other people’s money,” Freedom Foundation director of labor policy Maxford Nelsen told The Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “In this case, it took two U.S. Supreme Court decisions and a federal class-action lawsuit just to get SEIU 775 to stop seizing 3.2 percent of caregivers’ wages without their permission. And the complicity of the state in this scheme is frankly disgusting.”
The legal victory sets an ominous precedent for any union or legislative action intending to force workers to pay union dues without explicit consent.
AAN Staff
The staff at American Action News are consummate professionals, who when not producing original, hard-hitting content, are scouring the internet to bring you the unfiltered news that matters to you! Our mission is to maximize your experience on our website. If we can ever be of assistance, please do not hesitate to let us know!
