Articles

Forced union fees should end

April 25, 2014 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

The government’s days of forcing non-union members to pay union fees are likely numbered.  A few weeks ago, I discussed two pending cases challenging such fees and I explained that such fees amount to compelled speech.  This post explains why those fees are unconstitutional.  When defending compelled speech, the government faces an uphill ...

Articles

Harris v. Quinn : Victory for workers!

June 30, 2014 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

In Harris v. Quinn, the Supreme Court today struck down an Illinois executive order and law that declares all personal home healthcare assistants to be public employees, for the sole purpose of being represented by a union that seeks to lobby for greater government spending (Medicaid) on home healthcare. Under the Illinois law, the Service … ...

Articles

Rescuing teachers from the grasp of forced unionism

February 26, 2015 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

California law forces all public school teachers to pay chargeable dues to the labor union that represents them, regardless of whether they are union members.  California law also forces all public school teachers to pay nonchargeable union dues unless they expressly opt-out of those payments.  A nonunion public school teacher has only six weeks ...

Articles

Agency shop fees on the brink

January 11, 2016 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

Alexis De Tocqueville was deeply impressed by America’s use of voluntary associations to pursue undertakings both large and small, in every aspect of life.  Public employee unions may soon be included in that category of voluntary associations, as several justices in today’s oral argument in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Associatio ...

Articles

Compulsory union subsidies on the chopping block

September 28, 2017 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

The First Amendment protects the right to speak and associate as well as the right to refrain from speaking and associating. Today the Supreme Court decided to hear the First Amendment case – Janus v. AFSCME – that will determine whether non-union public employees must continue to subsidize the very unions they do not want … ...