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Supreme Court Takes Up Major Case on Public Sector Union Fees
6/30/15 | Reuters
Behind the Headline
Memo to Teachers’ Unions: Now Might Be a Good Time to Start Panicking
2/25/15 | Education Next blog
The Supreme Court announced today that it will hear a case brought by ten teachers who say that California’s requirement that they pay the equivalent of union dues violates their free speech rights.
Although the teachers have not joined the union, states like California allow the union to charge teachers an agency fee. The teachers argue that forcing them to pay money to the union to support collective bargaining violates their rights because “public-sector collective bargaining constitutes core political speech about governmental affairs that is not materially different from lobbying.”
Josh Dunn analyzed the California case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, as well as other cases related to public sector unions in “Memo to Teachers’ Unions: Now Might Be a Good Time to Start Panicking,” published earlier this year.
Josh concluded
Friedrichs looks like a case delivered straight from central casting. For unions, it looks like a machete-wielding monster. For education reformers, it looks like Clint Eastwood in Pale Rider. Regardless, teachers’ unions would be justified in worrying that their days of compelling contributions from alleged free riders are numbered.
– Education Next
