How Justice Scalia Could Become the Savior of Public Employee unions
by Michael Hiltzik
Los Angeles Times
Organized labor is on tenterhooks these days over a pending Supreme Court ruling that could spell life or death for public employee unions.
What makes this a man-bites-dog story is the identity of the man who might save public employee unions from extinction: The reliably conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.
Here’s the background of Harris vs. Quinn, on which a ruling is expected from the court any day now.
Where the state creates in the nonmembers a legal entitlement from the union, it may compel them to pay the cost. - Justice Antonin Scalia, Lehnert vs. Ferris Faculty Assn. (1991)
The roots of the case date back to 2003, when the Illinois Legislature designated some home healthcare workers public employees and allowed them to organize through the Service Employees International Union. They didn’t have to join the SEIU, but those who didn’t still had to pay an “agency fee” to the union to cover its expenses in negotiating and administering contracts.
That’s a common arrangement in many states, including California. It’s based on the principle that the public employee unions are compelled by law to represent members and non-members alike, so the latter should pay some of the costs of representation.
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