13A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 30, 2015
Justices take up dispute over union fees
Teachers claim
fees violate
their free-
speech rights
By SAM HANANEL
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The
Supreme Court will consider
limiting the power of govern-
ment employee unions to col-
lect fees from non-members
in a case that labor of¿cials
say could threaten member-
ship and further weaken union
clout.
The justices said Tues-
day they will hear an appeal
from a group of California
teachers who say it violates
their First Amendment rights
to have to pay any fees if
they disagree with a union’s
positions and don’t want to
join it.
The teachers want the court
to overturn a 38-year-old legal
precedent that said unions can
require non-members to pay
for bargaining costs as long as
the fees don’t go toward polit-
ical purposes. Public workers
in half the states currently are
required to pay “fair share”
fees if they are represented by
a union, even if they are not
members.
But the high court has
raised doubts about the vi-
ability of that regime in
two cases over the past four
years. The court has stopped
short of overturning the 1977
case — Abood v. Detroit
Board of Education — but
in a 5-4 opinion last year,
Justice Samuel Alito called
Abood “questionable on sev-
eral grounds.”
Alito said a “bedrock prin-
ciple” of the First Amendment
is that “no person in this coun-
try may be compelled to sub-
sidize speech by a third party
that he or she does not wish to
support.”
The lead plaintiff in the
case is Rebecca Friedrichs, a
public school teacher in Or-
ange County, California, who
says she resigned from the
California Teachers Associa-
tion because it takes positions
that “are not in the best inter-
ests of me or my community.”
She says she is still required
to pay the union about $650 a
year to cover bargaining costs.
The union says the fees are
necessary because it has a le-
gal duty to represent all teach-
ers at the bargaining table,
even those who are not part of
the union.
A federal district court
ruled against her and the other
challengers, saying the out-
come was clear under Abood.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals af¿rmed.
Leaders of some of the
nation’s largest public sector
unions issued a joint state-
ment calling the lawsuit an
effort to weaken labor rights.
“The Supreme Court is
revisiting decisions that have
made it possible for people
to stick together for a voice
at work and in their commu-
nities — decisions that have
stood for more than 35 years,”
said the statement from the
National Education Associa-
tion, American Federation of
Teachers, California Teachers
Association, American Fed-
eration of State, County and
Municipal Employees and
Service Employees Interna-
tional Union.
The Center for Individual
Rights, a conservative group
working with the plaintiffs,
argues that even basic union
goals such as negotiating pay
raises and boosting school
budgets can clash with the po-
litical and educational beliefs
of many teachers.
“We are seeking the end of
compulsory union dues across
the nation on the basis of the
free speech rights guaranteed
by the First Amendment,”
said Terry Pell, the group’s
president.
The Supreme Court’s ra-
tionale in 1977 for allowing
the fees was to help promote
labor peace and prevent
non-members from “free
riding,” since the union has
a legal duty to represent all
workers.
A ruling in favor of the
teachers challenging the
fees could sap ¿nances at all
unions representing teachers,
¿re¿ghters and other govern-
ment workers, labor leaders
and other experts say.
“When unions are required
to provide representation, if
people don’t have to pay for
that, a lot of them are going
to opt for that free option and
that’s going to cause enor-
mous problems for the viabil-
ity of unions,” said Benjamin
Sachs, a professor at Harvard
Law School specializing in
labor law.
As private sector union
membership has steadily de-
clined over the past four de-
cades, unions representing
government workers have
emerged as a powerful force
in organized labor. But they
have come under increasing
attack as of¿cials in Wiscon-
sin and other states blame
them for generous pension
and bene¿t packages that
cash-strapped governments
no longer can afford.
Public-sector
workers
have a union membership rate
of 35.7 percent, more than
¿ve times higher than that of
private-sector workers at 6.6
percent, according to the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The case, Friedrichs v. Cal-
ifornia Teachers Association,
14-915, will be argued when
the Supreme Court begins its
new term this fall.
In this 2011 file photo,
Karen Wallace, right,
and Meryleigh Brain-
erd, left, both teachers
in Calaveras County,
join in a candlelight
vigil in front of the
state Capitol to ex-
press sympathy with
union members in
Wisconsin in Sacra-
mento, Calif.
AP Photo
Robert Durell
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