 The free-market Freedom Foundation reviewed decades of strike data and concluded
public-sector strikes are at least 17 times more common in states where unions
can take mandatory fees from nonmembers.
In briefs filed in the Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association case before
the Supreme Court, public-sector unions said workers should be forced to pay
union fees to minimize conflict with management in schools and government
offices.
California teacher Rebecca Friedrichs and the other plaintiffs in her case are
asking for the right to choose whether to pay unions — a right that’s already
protected in the 25 states with right-to-work laws.
BACKGROUND: Labor bosses ask Supreme Court to rule in favor of forced dues
Freedom Foundation labor policy analyst Maxford Nelson used government strike
records to compare the prevalence of public employee strikes in right-to-work
and forced-unionism states, publishing a December report on his findings.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for 1993-2014 showed public workers were 26
times more likely to go on strike in states without right-to-work. Another
federal database showed that from 1984-2014, public-sector strikes were 17 times
more common in forced-unionism states.
Public employees in right-to-work states are “far less likely to disrupt
government services by walking out on the job than their peers in states that
require public employees to pay union dues and fees,” Nelson told Watchdog.org.
“In other words, the unions’ legal justification for mandatory dues in
Friedrichs is based on a factually inaccurate foundation,” he said.
While unions’ court filings argued that labor peace requires forced union fees —
even if those fees infringe on workers’ First Amendment rights — union officials
publicly accuse Friedrichs of trying to silence workers.
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 “The public employees actually being silenced are those forced to
pay money to unions they don’t support,” Nelson argued. A win for
the Friedrichs plaintiffs would not prevent public employees from
organizing, joining or collectively bargaining through unions.
RELATED: Union bosses smear teachers in Supreme Court case
Freedom Foundation research shows that union arguments for labor
peace “are completely insufficient to justify violating public
employees’ basic free speech rights,” Nelson said.
Nelson’s findings undermine a justification for forced public-sector
union fees dating back to the Supreme Court’s 1977 Abood v. Detroit
Board of Education ruling.
The Friedrichs plaintiffs assert that because public-sector unions
are inherently political, any form of mandatory union payment
violates the First Amendment’s protection against compelled
political speech.
Briefs in the case from the National Education Association, American
Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO and other labor unions relied on
Court precedent weighing labor peace above public employees’ First
Amendment rights.
If the justices rule in favor of the Friedrichs plaintiffs, hundreds
of thousands of teachers and other government workers nationwide
will gain the ability to choose whether to pay unions.
NEA, AFT and AFL-CIO all failed to respond to requests for comment
on the Freedom Foundation report. Oral arguments in Friedrichs v.
CTA are scheduled to begin Monday, with a decision expected by June.
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