Articles

Public employee “collective bargaining” = lobbying

December 02, 2013 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

In Harris v. Quinn, the Supreme Court will determine the constitutionality of an Illinois executive order and law that declares all personal home assistants to be public employees, for the sole purpose of being represented by a collective bargaining unit of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) that seeks to lobby for greater government ...

Articles

Worker free speech rights case to be argued before the Supreme Court

January 20, 2014 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

Tomorrow the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Harris v. Quinn, which involves the free speech rights of workers who are forced by the government to support unions directly out of their paychecks. This case may turn out to be one of the most important decisions of the year, and you can read about … ...

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

Supreme Court to review public employee unions’ ability to garnish wages

June 30, 2015 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

The California Teachers Association—one of the most politically powerful groups in the state—may have to start funding its political campaigns with the money of only those teachers who actually support its goals.  Unlike other groups that seek donations from like-minded people who support the organizations’ goals, the CTA has long benefi ...

Articles

Beyond satire : Public employee union-sponsored legislation blocks out the sun

October 15, 2015 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

Public employee unions in California hold tremendous political power, influencing both policy and politicians with tremendous effectiveness. We described the depth and breadth of this influence in our brief recently filed in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. Unions have a special ability to wield their power behind closed doors, as col ...

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

School choice, union power, and Obamacare

January 20, 2016 | By WENCONG FA

I will be on the air for another round of radio interviews this week. On Thursday morning, I’ll be talking about the Montana case and our Obamacare challenge with Pastor Greg Young. You can listen live here at 8:00 a.m. PST tomorrow morning, and you can listen to the recording here. Then Thursday evening at 6:00 p.m. PST, I … ...

Articles

Exclusive representation violates the First Amendment

January 06, 2017 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

New York laws and regulations deem family daycare providers (individuals who operate daycare businesses in their homes) to be “public employees” and requires a union to be the daycare providers’ exclusive representative for bargaining with (e.g., lobbying) the state over daycare regulations and policies. The workers who are “ ...

Articles

Liberating workers from compulsory unionism

July 13, 2017 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

The very powerful public employee unions in Illinois have long relied on their favored status to garnish wages of workers and “represent” them in politically-fraught negotiations over collective bargaining agreements with the state. The unions’ power is so great that state laws allow them to steal wages and purport to speak for wo ...