 That sounds like a riff on a George Orwell story is actually the heart of an
argument by one of America’s most powerful labor unions.
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees recently equated
forced dues with freedom in defense of an AFSCME video portraying nonmembers as
deadbeats.
“Imagine you and some friends go out to eat. Everyone eats, but when the bill
comes, one guy won’t pay his fair share because he didn’t pick the restaurant,”
AFSCME explained in an April 20 Facebook post.
Challenged on the video’s premise by Heritage Foundation labor policy analyst
James Sherk, AFSCME said nonmembers are “free to find another job with lower pay
and benefits. Freedom!”
Because public-sector workplaces are heavily unionized, working for the
government without paying AFSCME often requires moving to a right-to-work state.
When Sherk noted unions could fight for members-only contracts instead of
demanding forced fees, AFSCME told him to “stop attacking freedom.” Sherk said
public employees shouldn’t be forced to pay unions, and AFSCME replied with the
following.
Even when viewed separately from AFSCME’s Orwellian insistence that forced union
dues are “freedom,” the union’s video on mandatory union fees is misleading.
AFSCME’s video suggests forced union fees are a myth, but unions often negotiate
contracts with “fair share” or “agency” fee provisions making forced fees a
condition of employment.
Mandatory union fees are legal in the 25 states without right-to-work laws, and
more than 550,000 workers were forced to pay union agency fees in 2014. AFSCME
alone took forced fees from 125,255 workers.
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 Although AFSCME’s video claims every worker
gets to vote on unionizing, millions of Americans pay unions each
year without ever getting a vote on union representation.
The video insists unionization benefits all workers — but it’s
not uncommon for union contracts to benefit longtime employees at
the expense of new hires.
AFSCME released its video to address the U.S. Supreme Court case
Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association, a serious challenge
to public-sector agency fees.
In 21 states, AFSCME and other public-sector unions can take
mandatory fees from government workers’ paychecks. A sweeping ruling
for the plaintiffs in the Friedrichs case would cost AFSCME millions
per year.
Unions routinely attack right-to-work laws — which do nothing except
free workers from forced union dues — as “wrong” and dangerous, as
explained in a recent Watchdog video.
Now, despite AFSCME’s stated “solidarity” with all workers, momentum
toward right-to-work and fear of the Supreme Court are prompting
AFSCME to publicly smear nonmembers.
Sunday and again Monday, AFSCME summarized its agency fee video by
calling forced fee payers “that friend who just won’t chip in when
the dinner tab comes.”
AFSCME did not respond to questions from Watchdog about the union’s
latest defense of mandatory union fees.
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