Crushing Public Sector Unions
Labor unions are facing the biggest threat organized labor has faced since Reagan crushed PATCO, the air traffic controllers union. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Janus v. AFSCME Council 31. I patched together snippets from three links to paint a coherent picture of the threat:
Janus works for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services. In a statement, he explained why he brought his case: “To keep my job at the state, I have to pay monthly fees to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a public employee union that claims to ‘represent’ me,” Janus says. “I’m filing this case on behalf of all government employees who want to serve their community or their state without having to pay a union first.”
https://www.the74million.org/article/janus-v-afscme-lawyers-in-key-union...
Here's the destructive potential of this case:
The U.S. Supreme Court today accepted a case called Janus v. AFSCME Council 31, which would make the entire public sector “right-to-work” in one fell swoop.
Janus – which the nation’s highest court will take up in the October 2017-June 2018 term – is a blatantly political and well-funded plot to use the highest court in the land to further rig the economic rules against everyday working people.
Twenty eight states have passed right to work laws. In one stroke right to work could become the law of the land. This case is the result of a decades long attack on unions:
“This case is yet another example of corporate interests using their power and influence to launch a political attack on working people and rig the rules of the economy in their own favor. When working people are able to join strong unions, they have the strength in numbers they need to fight for the freedoms they deserve, like access to quality health care, retirement security and time off work to care for a loved one,” said AFSCME Pres. Lee Saunders. “The merits of the case, and 40 years of Supreme Court precedent and sound law, are on our side. We look forward to the Supreme Court honoring its earlier rulings.”
https://m.afscme.org/now/supreme-court-to-take-up-anti-union-janus-case-...
And finally a summary of the biggest labor battles of 2017 from In These Times:
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/20774/Donald-trump-labor-workers-u...
Labor unions are gearing up for a fierce battle against long odds, no thanks to the Democratic party.
Comments
yet another knife in the back
Yet another knife in the back. Not only from the Dems but from this particular class traitor as well.
All working people are better off when all working people are better off. And all working people are better off when the right to organize takes precedence over the non "right" to Serf.
Who died and left this Janus dweeb to be God, to decide for all the rest of us? Or is this Janus an actual working class person at all, or just a plant put there to ruin the economic lives of every other public employee in the land? And if Janus really is a working-class person, where the fuck did (s)he get this ridiculous anti-union ideology from?
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Most appropriate name ever...
Since this is an obviously two-faced case.
If no judge mentions it, their classical education is woefully lacking.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner & the Illinois Policy Institute
Mark Janus is represented by the Liberty Justice Center, the litigation arm of the Illinois Policy Institute.
Bruce Rauner is the anti-union billionaire governor that was elected in Illinois in Nov. 2014.
"Right To Work" is a folly of logic
Workers entering unionized industries benefit from the unionization's production of higher wages and better benefits. Then the newbie's don't want to participate in the process which assures their continued well-being, but being short-sighted desire to default on the dues.
In medicine a similar type of illogic is often seen. One of the most common examples is a treated hypertensive patient. The patient takes his medicine as directed. After a while the desired blood pressure normalizes. At this point many patients wish to stop their medications "because my blood pressure is normal". Yet they forget that the only reason blood pressure is now normal is because of that medication they now desire to abandon.
Moral: people often do not understand that current benefits requires continuing to use the mechanisms that got them to a desired situation.
This is just another republican check box
I'm not sure unions work anymore. The weaker ones fell apart as textiles, shoes and other manufacturing was off shored. The remaining unions got hammered every economic downturn and some were forced to institute 2 or 3(?) tier memberships with lower wages and benefits for new hires. Now unions are attacked 2 ways, with constant anti union propaganda on one side and the threat of more offshoring and automation on the other. Only the strongest unions have power and I think they are prohibited by law to have any solidarity with any other unions. We need something, I don't know what, that encompasses all workers, that they have a stake in, that's worth personally fighting for.
I work for a public sector union in New York
My union dues are like $21 bi-weekly. How is that not worth it???
A necessary evil?
I wonder if this disaster, coupled with others, might help the people of the future? The dolts, dorks,and saps who have been voting since at least 1981 have voted for ronaldreagan, its reagan Revolution and its clones, the neo-liberals. The electorate's infinite lack of wisdom still holds some respect for ronaldreagan, the business paradigm, reaganeconomics, rugged individualism, anti-union, etc. Ultimately, we are in this unnecessary catastrophe because thosepeople cast their peanut-braained votes. What will make the unbelievably stupid electorate wise up? Well, if AFSCME is destroyed, the smug and well-paid rugged individuals of today could be reduced to such a socio-economic level that they can't avoid realizing that the are essentially no different from employees who don't wear neckties, or those who loved FDR. Relentless ass-kicking may be just what suburbia needs.
@Little Bill
If I may, I'd like to add one little correction to your comment:
'...Ultimately, we are in this unnecessary catastrophe because thosepeople cast their (brain-washed) votes. ...'
The American people - especially the 'right-wingers' - have been subjected to what seems to me to be a more intensive propaganda campaign over a longer period of time than any other population group I can recall hearing of, and I would not blame the people for falling prey to the stratagems of experts, but the corrupt in politics who enabled/used this to manipulate and drain these people for their own personal enrichment via a cut of the wealth and power thereby stolen from the people and country.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
@Ellen North You are certainly right
You are certainly right. However, I do not excuse the stupidity of the voters on the basis that they have been propagandized. People who think so much of themselves as modern Americans have no alibi for being fooled by transparent disinformation campaigns.
I grew up in Youngstown, Ohio (birthplace of Richard Wolff, BTW). Although the old-timers there were not college graduates, they knew that when a person has to advertise relentlessly, his product might be deficient. They were New Dealers because it delivered the goods.
I realise that plenty of other possible influences exist to explain why the electorate is so dazzlingly ignorant. If they had sacrificed their own lives only, instead of wasting mine with their love of reagan-Hillary-etc., it would be quite a circus.
Nothing is ever mentioned
that we actually LIVE in a union.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
@earthling1
Oh, that is such a good point! Even though there's been such a lot of talk about various States, such as California, seceding (to be run directly by billionaires/corporations?) thereby breaking up that Union as well...
(Emphasis mine)
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/09/trump-win-california-...
Computer's waaaaay too slow for searching right now but previously, I'd seen many stories not only about not only the relative poor but the reasonably affluent (including what would otherwise seem to be highly paid IT workers) being unable to live in or near large areas of California (where they work) such as LA, due to uber-high rents - and about such stories as Californian billionaires objecting to having to see Poors on the streets, there being said, in various articles, the appearance of a desire for an elimination of The Poors by such as these.
I'm thinking that the uber-rich are planning on running seceded States as their personal fiefdoms.
And it seems that a number of those forming the upper ranges of the previous Bush, Clinton and Obama Admins either already were, or were planning to head, into hedge fund management and the like in California, before Trump won over Clinton and various of these either delayed previously announced as likely plans (Obama) or returned (Cheney, among others) to offer advice/guidance to the new Trump Admin which would undoubtedly have been unnecessary with the Clintons taking power over America and the world.
Battle of the billionaires continues, as we stand to lose the internet (among everything else) to such as these...
Edit: changed a word but failed at the time to adapt for it, changing an 'an' to a 'the', and removing a pesky, excess letter.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.