CWF in the Daily Caller

Posted by Olivia Grady on Monday, February 11th, 2019 at 2:19 pm - Permalink

The Daily Caller published an article on February 7, 2019, by Senior Fellow Olivia Grady. The article, "Opinion: Two Cases The Supreme Court Might Use To Crush Unions," is about two cases the Supreme Court might decide this summer on the constitutionality of exclusive representation:

“In a landmark 2018 case, the Supreme Court gave state government workers the freedom to choose whether they would like to join and support a union. This year, government workers in two new cases are asking the Supreme Court whether they should be forced to accept an employment contract negotiated by unions that they aren’t members of. These workers want the freedom to negotiate their own contracts.   

The plaintiffs in Uradnik v. Inter Faculty Organization and Bierman v. Dayton argue that exclusive representation violates their First Amendment rights. Exclusive representation is an optional benefit under most state laws for unions. This benefit allows unions to forbid individual employees from negotiating with their employer on their employment contracts. Exclusive representation also forces workers to accept whatever the union has negotiated. Unions request this option because it allows them to represent members and nonmembers of their union. The unions then determine what benefits an employer provides. 

While unions are required to represent both nonmembers and members alike, the reality is that nonmembers might be worse off than members. For example, in the Uradnik case, Dr. Kathleen Uradnik, a St. Cloud State University professor, is not allowed to serve on any faculty search, service, or governance committee, as well as the Faculty Senate, because she is not a member of the union. Serving on these committees is important to obtaining tenure and participating in the academic life.”

To read the rest of the article, please click here