JLC: in Support of Fair Share Fees in Public Sector Jobs
January 14, 2016: New York , NY -- Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Jewish Labor Committee' issued the following statement earlier today:
The right to form and join unions in both the public and private sectors has been and is still critically important to working men and women in the United States as well as to our democratic way of life. Unions provide a voice for workers in the economic and political spheres. They help build and sustain a strong middle class, mitigate income inequality, which, if it grows too wide, can destabilize our society. That right, now under threat, is essential to a fair and equitable workplace.
Public sector unions, of teachers, firefighters, social workers, police and other jobs, work to help ensure that these public employees have decent pay, fair working conditions, and a range of benefits -- whether or not they are a part of the union that negotiates on their behalf -- something the union is legally obligated to do. All who labor in workplaces where there is a union representing the workers benefit from the union's representation - and should therefore pay a fair share fee, representing the union's work on their behalf. Otherwise, they are getting a free ride, reaping the benefits that others pay for.
In the 1977 case of Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, the Supreme Court clearly ruled that it is constitutional for public sector unions to collect fair share fees from those employees who chose not to join a union but are still legally required to be represented by that union. The fee is only for costs involved in negotiating for bread and butter issues, not political activities. The most recent case before the court, Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association, threatens to change that 1977 ruling, eliminating fair share fees; this will lead to the deterioration of public sector unions.
Overturning Abood v. Detroit Board of Education will go far beyond public school teachers in California , affecting all public employees throughout the country. Without the fair share fee, unions will have fewer resources to handle negotiations and grievances, and adversely affect all of the workers in the places that the unions have members. It may also impede state and local governments' ability to recruit and hold onto highly skilled employees: if public sector workers earn less, and have more precarious work situations, than their private sector counterparts, more will be inclined to work in the private sector.
Stating the obvious, union membership would shrink because more people will attempt to gain the benefits of the work of unions without paying for their fair share of the cost of securing those services.
The Jewish Labor Committee stands with public sector unions, and the decision of Abood v. Detroit Board of Education. We are firmly opposed to this most recent attack on workers' rights and unions. Those behind the Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association case are the most recent manifestation of an ongoing multifaceted campaign to tear down not just fair share fees in California public schools, but more generally to reverse over a century's worth of the hard-won gains of workers in the United States to have strong unions defending their interests, in the public as well as the private sectors of our society.