On the U.S. Supreme Court’s Decision in Janus v. AFSCME

This week, the Supreme Court has further tipped the scales of justice against working people, with a decision that attacks workers’ basic right to join together in unions to improve wages and working conditions for all.

In a radical decision upending decades of established law, five justices on the Supreme Court have now held that public employers and the unions their employees form may not require non-union workers to contribute a “fair-share fee” to help defray the costs unions incur for bargaining and representing all members of the bargaining unit—even though these non-union workers receive all the benefits and protections their co-workers negotiate.

This decision not only threatens to roil public-sector labor relations in the 22 states that have adopted fair-share arrangements, it also challenges the ability of 17 million workers in public-sector unions—teachers, nurses, firefighters, and many others—to act collectively to win higher wages, better working conditions, safer workplaces, and greater health and retirement security.

The Janus decision is the latest example of this Supreme Court stripping away rights and protections from workers in order to shower even more wealth and power on corporations. Last month, in Epic Systems v. Lewis, the Court also sided with big business, allowing corporations to use forced arbitration clauses to take away workers’ right to band together in court to challenge sexual harassment and other illegal workplace actions.

In this case, a slim majority of this Court has aligned itself with the decades-long corporate effort to erase the freedom of working people to form unions. The erosion of union representation has contributed to spiking economic inequality and deeper employment insecurity.

This attack on public workers and their unions falls most harshly on women of color. According to the Economic Policy Institute, black women are roughly one in every six public-sector workers, making them the largest discrete share of the group.

Let’s be clear: America needs unions. Workers’ ability to form unions and act collectively has helped make the American ideals of prosperity and economic security a reality for millions of workers. Today, by a single-vote majority, this Supreme Court has put those ideals at risk—but it only stiffens our resolve to keep fighting for workers’ ability to come together to defend their rights on the job.

Read more at https://www.nelp.org/news-releases/u-s-supreme-courts-decision-janus-v-afscme/.