Union presidents speak of unity after Janus ruling
that could dramatically undercut union budgets.
“It is so important that you see us all four standing together as one,” said Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, in introducing the otherthree union presidents.
“Our four great unions enjoy indestructible bonds of solidarity,” Mr. Saunders said, his voice rising to a crescendo. “There is no daylight between us, not even an inch. And that’s never been more importantthan it is now.”
Mr. Saunders was on the losing end of the Janus vs. AFSCME Supreme Court ruling in June that banned unions from collecting fees from nonmembers in the public sector.
The court’s conservative majority voted 5-4 that the mandatory fees violate an individual’s free speech rights, upending 40 years of legal precedent and affecting teachers, police, bus drivers and other government employees.
Following the ruling, unions have sought publicly to project a united front while scurrying behind the scenes to ensure that nonmembers continue to contribute fees that cover the costs of bargaining and enforcing contracts. (Political donations are removed from nonmember fees.)
Mr. Saunders was flanked by Lily Eskelsen-Garcia, president of the National Education Association, and Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union. Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT, introduced them.
The message was clear: The Janus ruling — as well as the prospect of more rulings against labor as President Donald Trump seeks to install Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court — was another political attack on organized labor that unions would overcome.
“I’m looking at you, and I don’t see fear,” Ms. Eskelsen-Garcia said to the crowd. “I’m a sixth-grade teacher from Utah who has 39 kids on rainy day recess. The Koch brothers cannot scare me!”
Ms. Henry, in an interview later, said the SEIU has not changed the content of its message to members and nonmembers following the Janus ruling.
But it has expanded the ways the union reaches them, including the addition of text messages that alert members of upcoming events and urging them to contact their representatives in Congress on issues important to the union.
The SEIU started using such tactics years ago to organize more workers, she said.
“With voters, we doorknock, we phone, we do digital outreach, we invite people to take leadership and take action,” Ms. Henry said. “Those same principles we use to motivate a vote to turnout are the principles we’re using to get people to stick with their union.”
Theunion also has pressed toget information about itself to new hires in public sector jobs. The union has bargained contracts that require that a union representative gets time at a new employee’s orientation to explain the benefits of joining and how dues are spent. The union has allowed new members to sign up electronically.
“I would say that our internal membership communication has matched what we do with voters” in organizing drives, Ms. Henry said. The communication has proven effective in other states that have passed rightto-work laws, which allow any workers in the public or private sector to withhold union fees. (Pennsylvania does not have such a law.)
The SEIU has been the most prolific of all the major unions in organizing workers in the Pittsburgh region, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette found in an analysis of data from the National Labor Relations Board.
For now, unions will use their national conventions to rally supporters.
Ms. Eskelsen-Garcia just wrapped up the NEA’s convention in Minneapolis a few days ago. Mr. Saunders stopped by as AFSCME’s own convention is scheduled to begin in Boston and was unavailable for an interview on Saturday.
This weekend marked the first time the American Federation of Teachers has held its biennial convention in Pittsburgh since 1992. More than 2,000 delegates are attending, representing more than 400 local chapters.
Among the resolutions approved on Saturday, the delegates voted to increase taxes charged to local unions to $19.58 monthly for each member, up from $19.28. Effective in September 2019, a portion of those taxes will be directed to “a special AFT fund to engage members and to assist locals in crisis.”
Separately, AFT delegates approved an increase from 65 cents to 70 cents to the AFT Militancy/Defense Fund, which supports members and locals involved in strikes and defends them against lawsuits.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, DMass., made an appearance in the afternoon. When describing the post-Janus landscape for unions, she borrowed another person’s words to rally the crowd.
“Union members are strong. They speak out. They don’t sit down and shut up. Or, to say it another way — nevertheless, we persist,” Ms. Warren said to a standing ovation.
“Nevertheless, she persisted” became a catchphrase that energized the liberal base last year after Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell uttered the phrase while silencing Ms. Warren’s objections during the nomination debate over Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
And Ms. Warren, considered to be a possible challenger to President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, knew to use it during her visit to the AFT convention.
Ms. Warren was met with an enthusiastic crowd — Ms. Weingarten, the AFT president, introduced her as a closepartner with whom she consults frequently for advice on how to press union issues in Washington, D.C.
Ms. Warren spoke about the power of teachers early in a child’s life by talking about a teacher she still thinks about — the first person who encouraged her to go into public service.
Ms. Warren said her first job out of college was a teacher of special needs children at a public elementary school. She said she eventually went into politics to better shape the issues teachers care about.
Today, those issues are coming to a head, she said, with education funding levels not nearly sufficient to support classrooms.
“America is failing our teachers, and when we fail our teachers, we fail our students and we fail our future,” she said.