Last month, we marked eight years since the Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME that public employees cannot be forced to pay union dues as a condition of keeping their jobs. Until then, those dues had been mandatory for millions of government workers.
What's more, most of them never learned that Janus had changed that, until organizations like mine started telling them.
The 2018 ruling was decided 5-4. The majority held that compelling a public employee to subsidize a union's speech — speech he may deeply oppose — violates the First Amendment. For workers who had spent years funding ideological messaging and political activity they disagreed with, it was long overdue.
So, what has changed since? More than unions want to admit, but also less than workers deserve.
As of 2023, as many as 1.2 million public employees had either cancelled or declined union membership who otherwise would have been forced to join prior to Janus. That represents a cut of roughly $720 million per year in union revenue nationwide.
What's more, most of them never learned that Janus had changed that, until organizations like mine started telling them.
The 2018 ruling was decided 5-4. The majority held that compelling a public employee to subsidize a union's speech — speech he may deeply oppose — violates the First Amendment. For workers who had spent years funding ideological messaging and political activity they disagreed with, it was long overdue.
So, what has changed since? More than unions want to admit, but also less than workers deserve.
As of 2023, as many as 1.2 million public employees had either cancelled or declined union membership who otherwise would have been forced to join prior to Janus. That represents a cut of roughly $720 million per year in union revenue nationwide.
4 months ago
