COLUMBUS — Teachers unions are hoping that recent grass-roots protests over pay and working conditions will blunt the impact of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on union fees and help persuade dues-paying members not to abandon them.
The court said in a 5-4 ruling Wednesday that government workers can no longer be required to pay fees to labor organizations that represent them in collective bargaining, overturning a 1977 ruling which found unions can collect fees for non-political work that benefits all workers.
Opponents of fair-share laws say it’s a win for workers who don’t want to be forced to pay for political speech they disagree with, and claim the move will create more choice in the workplace.
Union supporters accused the high court of siding with wealthy business interests over the working class and emphasized their unions aren’t going anywhere.
“The intent was to silence our voices, weaken our unions. That’s not going to happen. We are here, we’re not going away, and we’re going to continue to fight for our students,” said Becky Higgins, president, Ohio Education Association
The non-members paying those fees are only a small portion of the people represented by teachers unions, which are more concerned about a potentially bigger financial blow if members decide to opt out and join those who benefit from the bargaining representation without having to pay for it.
That leaves unions fighting to prove their worth and relevance at a time when teachers in several states have taken to the streets in public demonstrations, demanding higher pay.
“There has been an interesting surge in union militancy and strikes, whether we look at the West Virginia teachers, the Tennessee teachers, all of those teachers strikes this past spring occurred in right to work states, where supposedly unions were not strong. And those were some of the largest movements of workers that we’ve seen in a long time,” said Ileen DeVault, a Cornell University professor of labor history and director of The Worker Institute at Cornell.
“When you see attacks on unions, that can have an impact on what’s happening in the classroom, and that’s what should be concerning to people,” Cropper said. Melissa Cropper, president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers.
The court’s ruling provides “a powerful opportunity for union leaders to hit the reset button,” said Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, a research and policy group. “Union leaders in this sector have too often confused their protection and advocacy for some members with their obligation to the profession at large,” she said.
Higgins warns the implications of the ruling affect the broader economy.
“The middle class is what has made this country, the United States, great, so any weakening of unions is going to mean that that middle class is not going to have the same rights and protections and pathways that the generations before enjoyed. ”
The ruling also affects many more workers than just teachers. Data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services indicates that 13 percent of the Ohio workforce – almost 788,000 people — are employed at some level of government.
“Today’s overtly partisan decision will further erode the important work of organized labor representing millions of American workers,” said Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin. “Unions matter – representing our police officers, firefighters, snow plow drivers and almost every other function in local government.
“The decision will significantly limit the ability of public sector unions to negotiate benefits such as a living wage, sick leave, and family leave for both union and non-union public employees,” said state Rep. Richard Brown (D-Canal Winchester).