EYEING POSSIBLE JANUS CASE LOSS IN SUPREME COURT, UNIONS RAMP UP RECRUITMENT
Unions, anticipating Janus case Supreme Court loss, jump- start recruiting drives
WASHINGTON— The Supreme Court will rule any day now on Janus v. AFSCME Council 31, the anti- union landmark Illinois case, and the justices are expected to side against government employee unions, breaking 5- 4 along Republican and Democratic lines.
Long anticipating an adverse outcome, the public sector unions in Illinois and other states have been ramping up drives to retain members and recruit new ones.
Mary Kay Henry, the International President of the Service Employees International Union ( SEIU), told the Chicago Sun- Times the union attitude is, “You can’t take us down.”
The key vote will come from Justice Neil Gorsuch, who asked no questions during oral arguments Feb. 26.
Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s appointee, on the bench only since April 2017, has not voted in prior related cases, which would have tipped his hand. He will shock Supreme Court observers if he backs organized labor in this case.
Either way, the decision in the lawsuit filed in February 2015 by GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner will have enormous ramifications for unions. Rauner has made weakening Democratic- allied Illinois public- sector unions a crusade.
There is the expectation from labor that if Janus wins, groups bankrolled by mega donor anti- union conservatives will kick off campaigns to persuade government workers to opt out of unions.
The Janus legal team includes the National Right- to- Work Legal Defense Foundation and the Liberty Justice Center in Chicago, controlled by the Illinois Policy Institute, whose funders include a foundation controlled by Lake Forest conservative megadonor Richard Uihlein.
If Janus prevails, “I think we are going to see the beginning of the most aggressive national anti- union campaign that we’ve seen in our generation,” Henry said.
The legal issue is whether the current fees paid by non- union member Mark Janus to AFSCME Local 2600 violate his first amendment freedom of speech.
Janus is a child support specialist at the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.
For more than 40 years— since the Supreme Court ruled in the 1977 Abood v. Detroit Board of Education— the laws in Illinois and 21 other states have allowed a government worker to not join a union. However, they must pay a “fair share” fee to cover costs for representing them.
That fee does not cover union political or lobbying expenses. Janus’ lawyer argued in their brief that Janus’ fees “subsidizes” an “advocacy organization” that Janus does not support.
Janus pays a fee of about $ 47 each month to the union, compared to member dues
“I THINK WE ARE GOING TO SEE THE BEGINNING OF THE MOST AGGRESSIVE NATIONAL ANTI- UNION CAMPAIGN THAT WE’VE SEEN IN OUR GENERATION.” MARY KAYHENRY, SEIU, international president
of $ 60, according to AFSCME Council 31 spokesman Anders Lindall.
In the context of political reality, the Janus case free speech argument is the Trojan horse carrying along conservative groups who are intent on eroding the power of the most liberal segments of organized labor.
The Illinois Economic Policy Institute, in a study releasedMay 9, painted a dire picture for government worker unions if Janus prevails.
In 2017, Illinois had 317,000 state and local government union members and would, with a Janus win, lose 49,000 members over a few years, the study estimated.
Unions are “going to take this existential threat and use it as a way to create a stronger union membership,” Robert Bruno, a study co- author, told the Sun- Times. Bruno is the director of the University of Illinois Labor Education Program.
Public- sector unions already have mounted aggressive campaigns to curb defections and sign new members.
The SEIU has its “Together # WeRise drive”; “AFSCME Strong in Illinois” was launched last August.
The unions have been using all their tools: direct personal contact, organizer training, videos, fact sheets, ads, town halls, flyers and direct mail.
AFSCME Council 31, SEIU Local 73 and the Chicago Teachers Union start out with most of their eligible workers already as dues- paying union members.
“In a very real sense, we are taking a very negative situation and remaking it as a way to deepen and strengthen our union and grow even stronger,” Lindall said.
Said CTU communications director Christine Geovanis: “We’ve been aggressively reaching out to both agency fee payers and CTU members since last September to sign new union cards— and beat back the right- wing attempt to undercut our right to fight collectively for our students and our members.”
DISCLOSURE: Some unions have ownership stakes in Sun- Times Media, including the Chicago Federation of Labor; Operating Engineers Local 150; SEIU Healthcare Illinois- Indiana and SEIU Local 1.